Gundam Seed: The Wings of Destiny
by Redstang
Summary: Orb is destroyed.  Kira and company are considered outlaws and being hunted by Zaft. The only help they receive is from travelers from another world.  But will it be enough.  A good WingxSeed crossover.  K/L A/C D/M H/R
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this is the long been worked on rewrite of my old story Yamato's legacy. After the loss of over half of what I wrote for that story, I lost interest in it, and just recently decided to pick it back up. While reading it though, I realized a complete rewrite was in order. Not much will be changed in these first few chapters except for some names and continuity errors. The only major change in this chapter that you need to be aware of is Borodin's ship is now called the Cairo. **

** If you wish to get a sneak peak of a little of what is to come, then you can read Yamato's legacy, which I will leave up for a while but will eventually take it down. Just know that alot of it will be changed and contradicted in this new story. Well enough of me gabbering, here is chapter 1.**

Gundam Seed: The Wings of Destiny

Science claims it can answer any question. This is debatable. Personal beliefs aside, mankind knows very little of the universe. It was Steven Hawking, one of the greatest minds of the last century, who said 'that the universe is so complex and weird, that every thing that man thought of the universe could be completely wrong'. So with this in mind, it is hard for man to believe what people know. Space, did it ever end? Science says yes, but logically something has to be outside of it. But in all actuality, the technology to research such puzzles was very far off in the future. The farthest a manned vessel has ever reached is the asteroid belt, so why did scientist insist that their impossible to prove theories are facts?

In resent years the theory of alternate universes has surfaced. All thanks to an anomaly that passed the earth over five years ago. Scientist claimed it was a door to an alternate universe, but they had no way of knowing or testing. No one knew what it was. All it did was send the religious fanatics and science radicals mashing teeth at each other. The sad part, men would probably never know what it was.

Marco Borodin was a scientist at heart. In his younger years he never pursued his scientific dreams, instead opting for a career in the Zaft navy much like his father. When he was young he dreamed of finding the answers. Dreamed of being among the greatest scientific minds in history, but in his old age he views those questions as nothing but pointless. For he believed one day, when this life is over, he would know the answers to all his questions.

Yet, every time he came to the captain's lounge and gazed out the glass canopy, he couldn't help but be fascinated by space's complexities and mysteries.

He was soon joined. A younger man entered the room. He stood at ease, with hands behind is back, leaning slightly forward, giving the captain the respect he deserved. He wore a similar white Zaft uniform and was decorated with numerous medals to indicate his high rank.

"Capitan, all ship preparations are complete." The younger man said. His tone not unlike his stance, for he stood with a grace of respect and solitude, he spoke like a son to a father.

He was the closest thing to a son that Borodin would ever have. The man's uniform was garnished with medals, some that could only be awarded to captains and admirals, but his uniform declared him as the First Mate. He was a bastard child at birth and upon joining the Zaft military became Marko's favorite. Always by the captain's side, and in constant cooperation with the elder gentleman, the boy went on to have a military career of the likes that some admirals could only dream about. In the fourteen years he had served, twelve were spent as Marko's number one and second in command. The man even gave up a Captain's chair on the formidable Minerva to be by Captain Marko Borodin's side. The honor of the Minerva went to Talia Gladys.

"It's cold here, isn't it Ivan?" Marko's voice rang out revealing his deep thought.

Ivan, the first mate was about to answer in a form that would continue the intellectual thought. But he was a military man, and he knew that military came first. One thing that Marko liked about the man was that Ivan always kept him on track of what was important. "Sir, we have received orders to disembark and head to the outer side of the moon were the Cairo will await further orders."

The Cairo was his ship. The third of what was called the Gunship class. She was a devastating vessel. She was researched in secret during the former chairwoman Yamato's two terms and reached construction and completion as a black project after she served her time. If the former pop princess had known about the Cairo's research and development, there was no doubt the ship would not exist today.

The Iron Clad class is the largest vessels ever completed. Built with the most advanced technology in all of Zaft, she was a seventh the size of the Heliopolis colony. She was meant for war. Reaching a length of nearly seven and a half kilometers, the Cairo was armed with sixty-eight XM49 'Tristan' beam cannons, spread along her hull. She also sported one hundred twenty-six 'Isolde' cannons, numerous missile bays, eighteen QZX-1C positional 'Tannhauser's, and the most recent and deadly Zaft achievement, a set of twin RZX-15H 'Super Tannhauser' a weapon capable of destroying an entire fleet of ships. She was filled with over two hundred NTAPs, the controversial Nuclear Tactile Artillery Percussions.

But her most deadly weapon was none other than the latest incarnation of the Genesis. No longer requiring the need of a disposable energy deflector, the new genesis was radically different. It was small, more powerful, and required less energy. And being placed aboard the Cairo, it was now mobile.

Within her massive hull, she could hold an entire fleet of mobile suits. But currently she had less than twenty. In their places the Cairo was supplied with over 500 mobile dolls. An invention of the current chair man, the mobile doll was a lifeless and ruthless unmanned killing machine. A Minerva class vessel, the Star Gazer, was a permanently assigned to the ship and functioned as a shuttle.

The Cairo was a cold weapon. A cold weapon given to a man with cold hands. A weapon to annihilate all in space who opposed, making space even colder.

Borodin adjusted his collar and turned to face Ivan. "It is cold indeed."

* * *

Kira Yamato watched with a smile on his face as the little girl ran around in the little room, bobbing her head up and down while singing a song. An up beat song her mother used to sing. He watched her happily as she played in the lavish little room, and listened to her beautiful developing voice.

The receptionist too watched her happily, but kept a keen eye on a television program running on the TV. She was very found of the girl and knew the Yamato's very well herself. This building they currently sat in was once the residence of said family. Only when Chairwoman Yamato's second term ended and the chair seat was given to her successor, did the family leave.

Even though they do not live in the house any more they are well respected and visit often. Kira's wife worked their as a member of the council. Lacus was still vital to the plant's, and while no longer the leader, she held a very respectable and influential seat in the council. Kira himself was a high ranking admiral in the Zaft navy.

The young girl was seven and a half as she said. Truth was, Kelly, just turned seven three weeks ago, and was at the age were the world was still her play ground. Named after her mother's mother, she had no care in the world. Kira envied it. The innocence of a child, she only cared about what she wanted and forgot what she didn't.

Speaking of which, she seemed to have forgotten that she was currently in big trouble, but looking at her, no one could tell.

At an inconvenience for missing the first half of the show Kira asked the girl what was about.

The receptionist answered nicely. "It's about scientific studies on coordinators." The receptionist name was Keely. Kira having been in very similar situations of waiting here before and became to know the girl. Not a close relationship, but friendly acquaintances.

On the screen showed two people, playing a game of chess while a narrator announced the study. On one side was a boy, college age. His name was unimportant, but the narrator made it clear that he was the current valedictorian at one of the best and grandest plant colleges. It said he had a perfect grade point average and is among the smartest coordinators within the plants. Just recently he won the college chess tournament making him the reigning chess champion.

Sitting across from him was a boy, about Kelly's age. Young, the narrator identified the kid as a natural, and a prodigy chess player. The kid who looked as if he really did not want to be there was the exact opposite of the college student, who had a stern and serious look. He looked bored and forced.

The narrator narrated, "To test Doctor Richard's theory we set up these two players to play the game. We had them play a total of ten games. No more, no less. After each game the winner was recorded. The results were not what we suspected, but went right along with Doctor Richard's finds." The film jumped to a later part of the game, in fact the end, where the young seven year old boy, check mated the college student. "In all ten games, there was only one victor. The superbly smart college student was defeated by the young natural boy in every game." Then video then went to show nine other game endings where the kid won.

"But this is not all that is happening. In the world of music young children have been out performing the best of the coordinators. It seems that a person called a prodigy who was born in a natural birth can out perform any coordinator in that specific task he excels at." The video then went to show little kids playing piano or other various instruments and adults just looking in awe at what the child could do.

The narrator continued. "What Doctor Richards suggests that a when an embryo is genetically altered or enhanced it takes away the factor that causes a child to be a prodigy. What it suggests is that, though it may be a chance of fate or an accident, the human body is more efficient at developing a child then science is. The only question is can we figure out how to do this with a coordinator? Currently they are trying, but with the rapid decrease in coordinators who are able to give birth then we may never know."

"That's just crazy." The receptionist said almost to herself.

Kira wasn't really shocked. He knew naturals had more potential then everyone thought, but never had he really seen a natural best a coordinator at something so complex. Even in war, naturals needed help from a computer to fight on par with coordinators. But, thinking back, there always was one or two naturals who became war heroes, and most still survived to this day.

Kira knew about the problems with coordinators having children. He and Lacus spent four years trying to have Kelly and they required expensive help from Doctors and specialist. And they have yet to successfully get Lacus pregnant a second time. The human body begins rejecting the genetic manipulation starting in the third generation. Birth rates for fourth generation coordinators was only 75% of those for third generation. The rates just get smaller and smaller as the generation increases. No one knows why. Some claim its evolution rejecting our attempts to speed it up, while others claim its God. All Kira knows is that his daughter, who is a fourth generation coordinator, may never have a child of her own when she grows up.

"Well we don't give naturals as much credit as they deserve." Kira stated.

"But still, I mean a child beat him." The woman sighed out of frustration, shaking her head.

The mighty doors to the chamber opened, allowing it's recent occupants to filter out with brief cases and books in tow. Filing out, some talked, some laughed, some yelled, and some had a similar expression to the receptionist.

"Mommy!" Kelly exclaimed, running from her father's side to meet up with her mother.

Lacus who was first conversing with a fellow politician, smiled out of pure delight. As her daughter neared it was evident how much the two looked alike. Very little of Kira was there. Kira had joked that Kelly was a clone, and the Lacus paid for the cloning procedure behind his back. While in jest, Lacus was not very found of this type of humor coming from Kira.

Kira walked up to his family as Lacus and Kelly were talking about there day. Giving Lacus a quick kiss he embraced the two. "You finally done for the day?"

Lacus sighed. "Finally."

"Something wrong?"

Lacus continued almost disgusted. "I don't know what the Chairman is thinking. He places too much trust in the Romafeller party. Things are changing too fast."

"You think he will do anything too hasty?"

Lacus rested her head on Kira's shoulders and temporarily closed her eyes. "Doubt it. Not with out the consent of the rest of the cabinet. But it is the Romafeller party that needs to be watched. The laws they're pushing are just ridiculous."

They began walking out with Lacus resting on Kira shoulder, and Kelly being carried in his other arm. Kira looked at his daughter.

She was smiling at him that death trap of a smile. He was powerless against it. Nothing, not even the Freedom could keep Kira safe from that innocent smile that his daughter gave him. But today he was not going to let her win. He knew what she was doing and unbeknown to her, he was not going to let her win. He had fought this many times, and lost nearly every time, but today he felt a feeling of strength in himself.

"Kelly, want to tell your mother something?" Kira barely let out.

Kelly's eyes shot out wide open. He did it. He finally beat Kelly. Now no more would she use her charm and cute innocence to get her way. Her power over her father was finally being lifted and Kira was free.

Lacus opened her eyes and looked at the girl. She knew what that meant. Her little angel was not a little angel today. "What happened?" She was looking at Kelly, but talking to Kira.

Kira waited expecting his daughter to answer. She did not. "Tell Mommy what you did at Grandma's today."

She was cornered. She could handle Daddy, usually being able to get out of almost anything, but Mommy. Let's just say that even Kira was surprised at Lacus's actions the first time Kelly got in trouble.

Kelly physically was a split image of her mother, but her personality was developing a nasty side of its own.

Kelly shook her head at Kira's comment.

Lacus put her head back down on Kira's shoulders. "Well talk about it when we get home." She then closed her eyes again from exhaustion.

Kira mouthed a sorry to his daughter as she shot him the best death glare that a seven year old could muster. Kira was just glade that he could with stand his daughter's charm.

"Kira." Lacus called out, a hint of anger in her voice. "What happened?"

Kira kissed the top of her head. "We'll wait till we get home. But let's just say that it has to do with spaghetti and Grandma's antique sofa." Kira smiled, holding in a laugh as his wife stroked her rubbed her temples.

* * *

"She is in our way." An older man declared in the inner sanctum. The meeting room of the chancellor and the Zaft council.

A secret meeting of the Romafeller party leaders was in occurrence. Since the party was formed five years ago, they had expressed great influence and gained great power. Unknown to the people was the ways they used to gain the power. Clandestine organizations they formed along with illegal actions allowed the party to be come the second largest party in the senate. Second only by a small margarine. It was this party that gave Lacus the hardest time during the last two years of her reign. After all, the Romafeller foundation was experienced in taking control of governments.

"Yes, she is a problem." The Chairman said. Within the first two years of their existence their candidate for chancellor took office succeeding Chancellor Yamato. Chairman Himler, was showing to be a very controversial leader in his unexplained actions and mysterious projects. However the people trusted the man. Perhaps for the same reason they trusted former Chairman Zala.

"I suggest we go ahead with the plan. Her death would be perfect to fuel war between us and the earth."

"She is very trusted and loved within the colonies. If she was killed by one of the united earth nations, then we have a means for war and a beginning to our plan. I for one prefer to be on the ground of a planet rather then out in space."

The United Earth Nations was the successor to the Earth Alliance. It had very little military power and was more of a committee of leaders from nations working together to maintain order. Since the drop of Junius 7 and the fall of the Earth Alliance parts of the world are still in chaos even after ten years.

You don't have to be smart to be in politics. In fact, it was arguable that all if not most politicians were complete idiot's with only their own wealth on their minds. This was the view of many people in the Plants and on Earth. There were always exceptions, such as when Lacus Clyne took the seat of Chairwoman; many people were amazed at her knowledge and leadership.

Unfortunately it was this view of politicians among the population that allowed the Romafeller to disguise who they really were. A group ran by naturals. If this became knowledge throughout the plants, then they would instantly loose power. That is why they were moving fast.

Now was the time. Romafeller wanted the world. They had the plants, and all they needed was the earth. They were fully confident that their mobile dolls would be useful once again. And with the Gunship class battle ship in full production, then they were not waiting for anything.

The Chairman leaned back in his seat. He liked Lacus Yamato. Maybe it was just a physical attraction, but he did not want her to die. Turning to his Secretary of Defense he called for his Secret Police. "I want the SS to do it. Make sure it looks like a terrorist attack."

The man smiled. An evil smile portraying his inner thoughts and personality.

"What about Orb Sir?" Another member asked.

"Their colony White Base houses an important strategic advantage. We will take the colony for our self's. But the mainland country we can dispose of." White Base was a sister colony to Heliopolis. Among seven colonies she is nearly identical to Heliopolis, and it is Orb's only colony in space that had a military base and weapons manufacturing facility. It was the largest military power Orb had in space. White base was the newest colony and built to replace Heliopolis. Her orbit was just two kilometers off of Heliopolis's and features the Heliopolis memorial.

White Base also had other advantages. It was the closest colony to Earth and was placed near the entrance and exit trajectory of most of the mass drivers on the European continent. Anyone leaving earth from that continent could be intercepted by what ever is placed at White Base.

The chairman pulled out a manila folder out of his brief case. "These go along with Mrs. Yamato. They're other members of the council. Killing the former chairwoman is not enough. We need to get rid of all the members who appose us." He handed the folder to his Secretary of Defense. "Be quick and discreet."

* * *

A young Arabic man sat looking up into the sky. His heart troubled by the demons of the past. He had an unnatural appearance, caused by his half European heritage. His blond hair flowing in the breeze, his thoughts ran of how and when his involvement would come.

Though one would think he had no right to get involved in the events currently happening. He had nothing to do with the wars of this world. In fact he had no idea of how he came to be were he is. But for the past five years he had stayed in this jungle with his trusted Maqunac Corp.

But maybe he does have the right. He has a voice to show the right path, to convey the truth, and bring the world towards peace. He had done it before. He most certainly can again.

A tall elderly man made his way to him. Another Arabic man. He was tall and strong. Wise from the years he had among the earth. He spoke with a deep voice. One of commanding stature, but used as a servant to his master. "Master Quatra. It has begun."

The Arabic boy turned to look at him. He had a smile of a false happiness. "I know."

"What will we do?"

"We will wait, and see what happens."

"We have reports from terminal confirming our suspicions that the new Zaft suits are actually mobile dolls."

The blond turned his eyes back to the stars. "Doesn't matter. We will keep the same stance for now."

The evening returned to the silence it instilled before. The elderly man did not leave, but stayed by his young master's side. Then he asked a question, of similar syntax, but of utterly distant meaning. "What will you do?"

"I don't know." The boy watched a shooting star. "I don't know."

**Okay not much has changed yet. Originally I had no plan or reasonfor the presence of people from the wing universe, but I later thought what would be the point? I could have just as easily told the same story with original characters than with the wing characters. So a major rewrite took place and I think it will turn out deeper and better. Unfortunatly you will never see the original plot points this effects because they were lost with my computer along time ago. **

**If anyone is interested, I am in need of a beta reader. I'm not an english major (I barely passed it in highschool). And another mind would really help me out. **

**Well hope you stay around for the next chapter. I'll have it up soon since it is mainly done. **

**Remember to please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch. 2**

Shinn Asuka ran down the crowded hallway. It was difficult for him to maneuver among the mass panic that filled the plant. Wearing civilian clothes no one gave him a second thought. He did not stand out in the crowd but fit right in with the panicking civilians.

Another shudder from the plant sent people falling to the ground, and ramming them against the walls. This formed a break for Shinn to run to the mobile suit hanger.

The plant White Base was the latest plant owned by the country of Orb. A newer colony completed not long after the end of the second bloody valentine war as a replacement for Heliopolis. White Base also served as the primary meeting place of the Orb Representative Atha and the plant Chairwoman Lacus Yamato. But, luckily neither was here currently.

It had been ten years since the second bloody valentine war. Many things had changed for Shinn. He stayed in the Zaft military which proved to be a very successful career for him. Currently he serves under Commander Zala, but Shinn still retains his Faith membership.

He even got to know the Freedom's pilot, Kira Yamato. Shinn served under Yamato as well and the two have collaborated together on many occasions. He was even an invited guest to the Yamato's wedding.

But now this plant, White Base was being attacked and Shinn needed to focus. Shinn had very little knowledge of a possible reason. His high rank in the military gave him almost all the knowledge of what was going on. Holding a chair in command cabinet of the space military force, he was told about every little thing going on in the plant. But this was an Orb colony, not a Zaft plant.

Shinn cursed under his breath. The attack had to happen when he and his ship where visiting White Base while on leave.

Again the base shuddered, but with renewed energy, throwing Shinn from the floor and into another person running in the same direction. After falling on the floor he made an attempt to return to his running stance and head to the hanger.

"Just give it a second." The man he hit said while still lying on the ground.

Shinn returned to his feat and looked at the man odd. Then the plant shook again. Not as strong as before, but enough to push him back off his feet.

"You have to give the colonies supports a second to recoil from the blast, or you will find yourself right back down on the ground again." The man now toward over Shinn, with his hand extended. Shinn used the man's assistance to regain his posture. "I guess you have never been in a colony while it was being attacked before."

The 'man', or to be more precise 'young man', who stood before Shinn, kept a smile on his face. He was dressed in a casual suit that had a style similar to a Catholic priest outfit. He also had long braided brown hair, and wore a pair of black sunglasses in the dark hallways of the plant.

"No I have not." Shinn got back on his feet. "You in the military? If not, you are heading the wrong way. Escape pods are in the opposite direction."

"No, I am not part of the military. However this colony has become my home for the past few years, and I can't let my home go to waist." The man had a care free personality with him. Even though he knew what was going on, this man did not seem to be taking the attack seriously. "My guess is that you're with Zaft. Am I right?"

"How do you know that?" Asked Shinn.

"The Orb mobile suit hangers are in the opposite direction, and I know a Zaft ship is here on vacation."

"Are you a member of Zaft?"

"Hah, no." The man snorted.

"If you know so much, then why are you heading this way. You say you're an Orb citizen then head to the escape pods or to your own mobile suits."

"Well, hate to burst your bubble, but I live here. I'm not a citizen. Besides, your mobile suits are closer. If I head the other way it would take hours get through all the people."

Maybe, this man was a former member of Zaft. Shinn however was losing time and he resumed his trek to his ship. "Are you a veteran? You talk like you've piloted and fought before."

"Yep. I was a first class mobile suit pilot. Among the five best you could say." He still had the same tone of voice, but Shinn could pick up that he was not telling everything.

Shinn however was surprised at that last comment. "Who did you side with?"

"Let's just not talk about it anymore. But let's say that now, I side with Orb."

Not telling Shinn the information he wanted forced his temper to start flaring up. But there was no time to think about him right now. Shinn had to get to the Destiny. But among the five 'best'. On either the Zaft or the Earth Alliance, this man could be a big help. Shinn just might throw him into a suit to see how good this guy is.

Again the colony shuddered. This time Shinn braced himself and held onto a metal railing. He waited for the recoil to subside before continuing.

"They ruptured the hull."

"What?" Shinn asked him. He was not really paying attention to the man, but picked that up.

"I said that they have blown a whole in the colony. They create enough wholes and the suction from the loss of air will rip the colony apart."

Shinn acknowledge what he said, and continued down his path. He decided to trust the man, since he apparently had a good amount knowledge of the colonies characteristics while under stress.

It wasn't long and the two found themselves in the hanger of the Musai. The Musai was a Zaft military vessel that Shinn was in charge of. It was a Larasia class. Old, but the Larasia class vessels still made up the back bone of the Zaft military. Just like Shinn, the entire crew was given a week of leave on this Orb colony. Bringing the man along, Shinn entered into the hanger of the vessel where people were running around in a frantic to prepare to launch the ship.

Doing a small scan of the terrain Shinn found the officer with the highest rank and made his way to him. The man was a Captain second class. The man more or likely was in charge of all the people in the hanger. More like a management job over all the mobile suits.

"Captain report." Shinn yelled out.

The Captain was yelling out orders, but still made the time to salute Shinn as he arrived. "Sir. We are currently employing mobile suits and armors to counter the threat. They are being loaded as they come, and launched as soon as ready."

"Do we know who is attacking us? Is it the UEA or terrorist?" Shinn asked. He was pretty sure that it was not Zaft, due to the relations of the leaders between both countries. It was impossible.

"Sir we do not know. They are using a type of mobile suit that we have no data on. I can't give you an assessment on their forces at this time however; it does not look good at the moment."

"What have the leaders of the colony said?"

"Not much Sir. This has come at a complete surprise. They are asking for our cooperation though."

"Technically it is forbidden for us to interfere. All we are supposed to do is leave. As long as this battle has nothing to do with us, we cannot get involved." The captain stared at Shinn while he said this. "However, ever since the end of the last war Orb has become a great ally. It would be absurd to not lend aid. We will provide help."

The man in the priest outfit spoke up. "Then I guess you better stop wasting time and send us out. The longer we wait the weaker this colony is going to get."

"Sir, who is this?" The captain asked Shinn.

"A civilian." Shinn would take a chance on this guy. "Put him in a basic Ginn, and send him out immediately."

"Sir, an Orb civilian?" This was beyond regulation.

"Yes. He tells me he was once an ace mobile suit pilot. I'll authorize it." The man gave Shinn and the captain a wink after that comment.

"But sir, are you sure?"

"I agree with the commander." The voice belonged to a woman. She wore the uniform of a major, but with a small flashy skirt in place of the traditional skirt. The captain saluted her while Shinn, since he was a higher rank, just gave her his attention. "I'll take him to his suit."

"Major Hawk. Shouldn't you be out fighting?" Shinn asked his long time girl friend, and current fiancée.

Lunamaria stuck her tongue out at him. "Where do you think I am heading." She then grabbed the civilian man, by the arm and started to pull him to a mobile suit. "Just came to tell you that your Destiny is ready and waiting for you. Or is a high official of the military cabinet too important to fight?" She then turned her attention to the boy in her arms. "But I don't know, sending a boy as good looking as you out should be illegal."

The man did not know what to say. He just kept quiet, scratching the back of his head. It was getting tense with Shinn around. Shinn's stare was exceptionally scary.

Lunamaria continued. "Say, what is your name?"

Shinn was a bit curious. It had not crossed his mind to ask the man his name. He was too focused on getting to his ship. "Yes. What is your name?"

The man turned his head, looking straight into the eyes of both Shinn and Lunamaria. "Duo." He lifted his free hand and scratched the back of his head. "Duo Maxwell."

"Well Duo." Shinn said. "I hope you are as good as you say you are. Luna, take him to a Ginn."

She gave him a big smile before running off with Duo. Shinn smirked at her. He left a few commands with the captain and ran for his the Destiny.

* * *

Kira's eyes fluttered open. Though not wanting to, he finally let the light from the sun consume his vision. The colony's exterior mirrors, 'called gates' would rotate, reflecting the 24/7 light into and out of the colony, thus simulating day and night.

He could faintly hear a knocking at his door. Or more precise a banging.

_Wait. The sun's out?_ The sun out was bad. It meant Kira over slept and would be late for work. Same for his wife and his daughter would be late for school.

Sitting himself up, Kira scanned the room. First he looked at his alarm clock. It showed no time. Not even a blinking twelve o'clock. Power was out. Power was never out in a plant.

To his right his wife lay, still sleeping. Completely undisturbed by the light. Deciding not to wake her until he had an idea of what was going on he left her to sleep as he checked on his daughter.

Kelly herself was also soundly asleep in her room. Kira left his sleeping angel to check the door.

The banging at the door would not stop. In fact it got loader and harder as time pasted. The house itself was empty with the exception of the family. It was a big house, but they were a small family, and Kira never wanted servants, or maids. Lacus was happy without them. So no employed help could be at the door.

But the thought of who it could be did not slip by Kira's mind. Only a few people had the ability to get past the security at the front gate without being arrested. Athrun Zala and Mr. Waltfield to name a few.

Opening the door he was met by Mr. Waltfield and Yzak. Both looked extremely worried.

"Uh... Hi." Kira said surprised and confused.

"Come on boy. Get the wife and kid. We have to go." Waltfield almost yelled. He ran past Kira forcing the two to follow.

"Wait. What is happening?"

Yzak answered. "The Romafeller party took control."

"What?"

"Just a little while ago, all political members of opposing parties received notification's of treason. Romafeller has ordered execution for them all. That includes Mrs. Yamato."

"You get your wife. I'll get the kid." Waltfield said as he ran off. Kira ran to his room, with Yzak in tow.

"The people won't allow this to happen." Kira said referring to the population of the plants. He opened the door to his room and went to wake his wife up.

As Kira shook her awake Yzak continued. "Last night there was a series of mass killings. Among them were ranking Zaft military leaders with ties to Clyne faction. The 'people' do not know. Romafeller is using manipulation to its greatest. Everyone else who is apposed to Romefeller is being accused of treason. That includes you and your wife. A few of us loyal to her received intelligence about this. We have very little time."

"What is going on Kira?" Lacus rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. She was abruptly awakened more as Kira softly took her arm and dragged her through the house.

"The Eternal is waiting for us, but it won't be long till Romafeller discovers the ship is powering up to leave." Waltfield joined them with a sleeping Kelly in his arms.

"What?" Lacus asked again. Kira assured her he would explain everything once he himself knew. But he had to get them out of there.

The house did not have any secret passages or escape routes. The only way out was outside.

They began running ounce outside. Being sure to hide behind the bushes as not to be seen..

Two black cars pulled up, crashing through the estates gates. Men got out of the cars and began firing off their guns at the house. The men then ran into the house screaming and yelling, believing the Yamato's were in the house.

Seeing an opening the family and two friends commandeered the vehicles and drove off to the ship hanger.

* * *

Duo followed Luna's mobile suit as they rounded the plant. The plant was cylindrical shaped just like the former Heliopolis. White base itself was dwarfed by the vastly larger plants of the Zaft forces. To Duo it reminded him more of the colonies back home then the colonies that built up most of the Zaft plants.

Another thing that was familiar to him was the mobile suit he was piloting. Though for reason's unknown to him, the set up of the cockpit was familiar. Not all the controls, but the majority of them were the same as a Leo. When he first got in the suit, it moved awkward. The computer did most of the functions for himself, leaving him with very little piloting involved. Though nice for a newby pilot, the controls did not allow for the movement that he was accustomed to with a more difficult suit to handle. After fondling around with the computer for a minute, he managed to shut it down, and restart with a separate operating system. Which was harder to use, but allowed him the extra freedom he required in a battle. It made him feel more at home.

The suit in many ways was more advanced than anything he had piloted before. Even his personnel suit seemed dated in comparison, but this suit seemed too complicated for its own good. Computer operated electric motors controlled most of the joints, but the capabilities were lower than his suits 'old fashioned' hydraulic system. The armor was a joke. Duo felt like he was in an aluminum coffin.

Coming to this world, Duo had learned a few things. One of the first is that technology had taken a different route. Where as space exploration and expansion were years ahead of anything from where he was from, most of their weaponry was behind. Take phase shift armor for example. It's very strong, but requires a constant power source to be strong. It is as strong as gundanium, but lacked the stealth and beam resistance characteristics of gundanium. Even beam weapons were weaker here. Interference from the n-jammers weakened them in space, but beam weapon technology was stronger where he was from. Heck, one mobile suit he knew of could blow a single colony up or a fleet of mobile suits with a single shot. Nothing here could do anything remotely close to that.

He preferred the simplicity and reliability of his suit. It made repairs and maintenance easier. Though it was extremely hard to handle, his gundam was far superior to most suits here. That being said, he and his friends did take advantage of some of the greater advancements in this world. The new engines they used were definably a step above the super vernya engines they had before.

A little screen popped up on his display, and showed Luna wearing her space suit. "So Mr. Maxwell. You ready?"

"I am always ready babe." Duo replied to her.

She did not smile or have the playful attitude she had before. She kept a serious tone this time. "We are sneaking around the plant and hoping to cause a sneak attack."

"I am pretty sure they are watching all fronts of their attack. Sneaking I think is not an accurate statement."

"You are probably right. But if we even can take a little bit of the heat off the Orb forces that are already there, then we can help out a lot."

Duo thought that over. Elementary, but better then rushing in where there firing. Of course, they could always run into a trap.

The plant finally came out of his view and he could see a battle going on. He could not tell what he was fighting, but he could make out that it was not going good for the colony. The hull of the colony was battered and torn. Wholes made from beam weapons covered the outer skin. The colony was made out of extremely strong and thick metal, but it was beginning to resemble swiss cheese. It was amazing that the colony was still together.

But from what Duo could tell, destroying the colony was not their objective. While it had taken a beating, it was still together and they didn't appear to be intentionally targeting it. Besides, if they were intending to destroy the colony, then they would have already done so.

Another thing that Duo noticed was, he could see Orb ships, but no enemy vessels. All else he could see was the battle taking place.

"An ambush! Spread out and return fire." Luna yelled over the radio. She then moved out of Duo's view. All the other mobile suits surrounding Duo also moved out of formation.

Machine gun fire lit up the sky around Duo as he scrambled to not get hit. Duo realized that this suit handled like a 'gundam', yet it seemed to only have capabilities on par with a Leo, or at most a Taurus.

He could hear screams on the radio from mobile suits being downed. Duo tried to not concentrate on that, but to keep himself alive. But what he could tell from the radio was that it was a slaughter. His team was being killed left and right.

His suit was hit sending him in a sideways fall, away from the small fight. Countering against the g force, he was able to regain control. And then he could see what exactly was hit him.

He recognized the make of the enemy suit. They were black Taurus's. But there reaction time was too quick. They were easily destroying the mobile suits, which he knew where piloted by coordinators. That meant either coordinators where piloting the Taurus's, which he doubted, or some thing far more dangerous.

Unknowingly Duo spoke out load. "Mobile Dolls."

Lunamaria was having trouble. Being the skilled pilot that she was, she still could not land a hit. She was out classed, by better suits and better pilots. The enemy suits had not given her a chance to even fire at them, forcing her to continuously dodge their attacks, which she was barely able to do.

Turning to her left, she moved to place an enemy in her range. She fired off multiple shots, to only miss as the enemy could easily dodge her attacks. Then she was forced to face against return fire.

She felt herself fly forward in the cockpit. The seatbelt straps keeping her in place, she quickly recovered to find one of the enemy mobile suits right behind her, with its main rifle aimed.

Feelings of dread swept over her. She closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable. But it never happened.

She felt a nearby explosion, but her suit was undamaged. Opening her eyes she looked strait at the back of a Ginn, which was standing right in the middle of the wreckage of the enemy suit.

"Hey Miss. You have to be more careful." It was Duo.

"Maxwell?" Luna asked just to confirm that it was him.

"Yeah. Listen, these suits are not piloted by naturals or coordinators. Their reaction time is to fast to shoot them down from a distance. Who have to engage them in a close quarter combat where their judgment is slower."

"What?" Luna said more to herself then to Dou.

"They're stupid in close range. Their reaction time is slower and they can't calculate fast enough for had to hand combat."

Luna watched in awe as Dou engaged the enemy suits. He moved to the left, to the right, dodging weapon's fire, till he got one of them in rage. Then he would destroy it. He was obviously skilled. She was having a hard time just staying alive. But he made killing them look easy. And he was in a basic Ginn!

A familiar looking mobile suit came to her side. The pilot obviously angry at her. "Luna! What are you doing?" Shinn yelled on the radio. "If you stay put you will die!"

Luna finally gained back her senses. Giving Shinn a confirmation she pulled her suit back into position. "I'm okay now Shinn."

Shinn felt relieved. She had become to mean a lot to him. In the corner of his eye, he could see a suit coming at them.

Pushing Luna aside, he lined up his targeting computer and fired at the incoming mobile suit. But just like Luna before, he missed.

Shinn scrambled to activate his beam sword, but it was too late. The enemy suit was right in front of him. Close. Really close. Shinn felt like he could almost touch it.

Then in the blink of an eye, the enemy suit vanished. A red, white, and yellow cotton ball, consumed the suit. Dematerializing it and sending pieces of the enemy in all directions. And all that was left was a grey-blue suit, floating in a combat stance. And as if it did not care about Shinn, it flew off, destroying all enemy suits it came in contact with.

Luna returned to her former state of amazement; this time with Shinn as her companion. They just watched as the Ginn sliced up it's enemies as if they were nothing but play toys for it. Like a champion black belt, taking on the worst of the white belts.

"You sure know how to pick them Shinn." Luna called him in. He did not answer, but she saw the grim expression on the screen. "That's Maxwell. The pilot you brought with you."

Shinn just watched as the man did things in the Ginn that he could only do in his Destiny. But it wasn't long until his attention was taken away, and forced to watch as all the escape pods from the plant jettisoned, leaving the plant lifeless.

The enemy mobile suit's did not pursue, or attempt any hostile actions to the retreating human containment vessels. Instead, they flew by, and occupied the plant.

Duo came in over the intercom. "Look. I don't mean to be a downer, but I think you should call in a retreat. We lost the battle, with way more casualties then expected. I doubt we have the strength to continue fighting. I know this sounds bad but we better be glad that they are giving us a chance to live."

Shinn looked at the readouts of the battle. Right now, they seemed to be at a stand still. The enemy taking control of the plant, they got what it came for, and appeared to be in a defensive formation.

Shinn read the battle details. He had lost 60 of his forces. They were wiped out within fifteen minutes. But the enemy had only 23 confirmed losses. 6 where by himself, but 14 where by the mobile suit that is currently designated to Duo Maxwell.

Shinn cursed before signaling a retreat. His forces along with the civilian carriers were allowed to leave without any resistance. As he left he could see large combat ship's with hundreds of the new enemy mobile suits make their way to White Base. Not making any radio contact, Shinn lead the way back into the mobile suit hanger.

* * *

There was a lot of commotion within the colony now. Not a mass panic, nor chaos. Businesses were closed, while nearly the entire populous of the colony, went to the aid of the incoming White Base citizens. This small civilian Orb plant was a sister plant to White base and was quick to recover the escape pods.

Among the large mass of people, one boy did not contribute to the panic. A new citizen of this plant, he paid little attention to the incoming survivors. They were fine, and they will be fine. They had no need for his assistance.

He wore a blue shirt, tucked into his blue jeans. Long brown hair jetted out forward of his face. He had a brown leather jacket, hanging over his shoulder, where two fingers from his hand kept it from falling. Using his free hand, he flicked the obsolete, chard end of his cigarette into the artificial air. Smoking was a habit which he had picked up recently.

Not a citizen of this colony by birth. Nor was he a coordinator. But he was a young man, unsure of his future, unsure of his present, and once was unsure of his past. He made his way to his home for the past five years. The place he had spent, waiting for his character to ounce again, be played in a new drama.

His home was a run down storage building. Or it would seem. The contents of his house hold where to be of the highest secret. Very few knew of what was there, just like very few knew that he was there. It was just a front, to hide suspicion.

Sitting down, he started up his computer. His past self's ability to acquire the most secret information was brought back up inside him. Soon he was hacking both the Earth Alliance and the Zaft main mainframes

"Mobile dolls." He confirmed his hypothesis as correct. Black and devilish, the weapons of choice, by his former enemy had followed him. He did not know what was going on, but he had to learn. He had to find out the truth of the matter.

Thoughts raced through out the man's mind. Thoughts of his past, his time in war, and the people he cared about, the people he fought with and the people he killed. His hardened former self, five years ago would not think of such things. Perhaps he was getting soft.

Terminating his connections, making sure he could not be traced, he shut of his computer. He left for the other end of the storage building. A large room. Size of an airplane hanger, for it once was.

Two small shuttles lay dormant there. Not having moved since they first sat there. It was easy to sneak them in, due to the reconstruction the plant was under when he first arrived. Apparently, not long before he came here the plant took major damage, resulting in a large section being cut off of it.

He moved to one of the shuttles, his shuttle. The other he was temporarily holding for his good friend Duo, who had no place to hide it. Because of the commotion outside, getting the shuttle out would be easy. Easy for him that is.

The shuttle was ready. It always was. He keeping it and it's cargo in top shape was something he did to pass the time. Using an in-house crane, he loaded the shuttle with the large ammunition that he would need.

Most importantly he checked up on the cargo. Loading the ammunition into it, he made sure the green suit would function. The 'un-worldly' metal, for this world, that armored the advanced suit shined perfectly. It was a masterful restoration to the suit of the people.

It was not long till the man was one his way. He did not know what he could do, or what he would do, but he had to do something. He was a patient man, but he preferred to be patient near the problem rather then being patient hours away. That patience never helped solve anything.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch. 3**

The Eternal made her way out of the plant, due to the aid of loyal member's of the Clyne Faction; secretly helping the Yamato's to escape. However it was no secret to the Romafellar's that the Eternal was headed out of the dock. Alarms blazed, alerting the base that the Eternal was being stolen.

Kira along with his family entered the bridge just as the viewing glass began to show the blackness of space. They had made a quick stop to put some clothes on. Since the Eternal was assigned to be the Yamato's personnel ship, it already had many pieces of clothing for them on board.

On the bridge, Captain Waltfeld took command. He sat in the captain's seat while his right hand man Decosta was currently piloting the ship. In the back corner, the three highest ranking members of the Joule team were conversing, no doubt on the current events.

"Mr. Waltfeld what is going on?" Kira asked. Kira now fully dressed and presentable asked. Lacus stood in the back holding a sleeping Kelly.

Andrew turned to answer Kira, but was interrupted by a lieutenant operating the CIC. "We're being pursued! Incoming vessels and mobile suits!"

Once he heard Kira did not wait for her to answer. He along with Yzak and Dearke fled to the mobile suit hanger on the ship.

Lacus took Kira's place beside Andrew Waltfeld once Kira left. "Have you identified what vessels they are?"

"Checking make of the ship." Shiho Hanafus relieved the lieutenant and took over the CIC. "Captain." She said after a moment. "Two D-type Nazca class destroyers and about twelve unidentified mobile suits."

The Nazca class was quickly becoming the back bone of the Zaft military force, much like the Larasia used to be. They where a quick and powerful ships that could easily be mass produced. But these two where D-type, meaning these two Nazca class ships where fitted with extra weaponry and designed for defensive and escort missions. They lacked the long range high output drives of other Nazca types. These meant the Eternal could easily out run the two ships, and thus avoid a fight.

But the twelve mobile suits can cause them problems if left alone. "Tell the pilots to head out as soon as they are ready, and take us to full speed." Andrew ordered. The three suits could easily keep up with the Eternal.

The pilot's entered the hanger. Kira quickly changed into a flight suit and made his way to the awaiting Strike Freedom. Powering up the suit he headed out first.

Both Yzak and Dearka headed out next. Both piloting the latest version of the Zaku; personalized to each others liking.

Once they were suited up, they too left the ship.

* * *

Shinn had Lunamaria take command of reequipping the mobile suits as he ran over to see Duo. He arrived as the brown haired boy was retreating from his cockpit. Shinn hardly noticed that Duo was not wearing a space suit. It was standard procedure, a requirement to have if you piloted a mobile suit. But this 'boy' was still in his black priest outfit. The outfit did not suit the boy, yet at the same time, did.

"Maxwell!" Shinn yelled in a small rage. Angry that the man did not tell him the vast amount of his skills. Or was he jealous? Mad that Duo was a better pilot then he. That Duo was a better pilot in an inferior suit.

"Yo." Duo waved cheerfully. Keeping a smile, Duo's hands went back to fix the braid in his pony tail that became undone in the fight. Mechanics ran behind him and began to reequipped the suit. They paid little attention to the two pilots.

Shinn got up to him and stared. "Why did you not tell me you were that good?" Shinn asked in a fit.

"Well I do recall telling you that I was among the five best." Duo did not once make eye contact. "Am I wrong?"

"I have fought with the best on the Zaft forces and have personally fought against the best of the Earth Forces, and I know the best in the Orb forces. If I'm not mistaken those are the only three military powers that had mobile suits present in the last war. I have only seen a handful of pilots who could handle a suit as well as you do, and in the end none of them were for Zaft or the EA. So who were you with?"

"Boy I am tired. I am going to hang out in the nearest lounged if I can find one." Duo tried to avoid the question and started to walk away.

"Who were you with?" Shinn yelled.

"Does it really matter?" Duo turned and for the first time since the attack run the two made eye contact. "Right now I am not your enemy, and I have no reason to become one. In fact I have many, many reasons to not be your enemy. But if this keeps up I might just have rethink my alliance."

"Why are you yelling at the new guy Shinn?" Luna finally arrived at Shinn's side. "You have other responsibilities here. You need to get every one calm and start deciding what to do. You are the one in charge here."

"Yeah what she said." Duo put in. He could not tell if Luna was allowing him into the conversation, but he decided to butt in anyways. After all, he just does it so well.

"And you." She turned pointing a finger at Duo. "When did you decide to tell us that you were that good a pilot? Not only that, but you knew a whole lot about the enemy. You are going to stay here and tell us all you know. You got that?"

"Yeah, yeah. I got did. Don't worry I will be good and stay baby." Duo almost yawned himself asleep when saying that. He knew he was to stay.

"Don't call her baby." Shinn said with a serious tone.

Duo looked at him curiously, just in time for Shinn to grab Luna by the waste and pull her into a deep kiss. A kiss that Luna equally forced on to Shinn. After parting from the kiss they put each others heads together and whispered while keeping their eyes closed. More than likely assuring the other how glad they were for being okay.

"Only I can call her that." Shinn said after the mood of the moment passed from romantic to cheesy then to stomach unsettling.

"Ah. Well I get it now. So she is off limits. You have nothing to worry from me. But, I have just one question." Duo smiled almost evilly. "Does she have a sister?"

Luna smiled at his comment. First time she smiled since they returned to the ship. "I have responsibilities to handle and so do you Shinn. And you Maxwell better be somewhere I can find you. As soon as I can we will have a long talk." Luna then walked off.

Shinn watched her leave. He still surprised himself at how much he was still in love with her. Every day he grows to love the girl more. His thought about the girl was ended by a whistling noise coming from his brown haired companion.

"Nice catch. You know how to pick them. So is she your girlfriend?"

"Fiancée."

"Oh well then congratulations my friend. Now I will be off to find me a nice coke machine and be waiting for the hell that you people are about to put me through." Duo waved again. Duo was a very expressive person Shinn figured out.

A mechanic jumped out from Duo's suit and handed over the combat report of Duo's performance that Shinn requested when they arrived. Shinn immediately began to review it.

Apparently Duo listed himself as a natural when asked, and was started out with the naturals OS operating the suit. However right before he engaged in combat he switched the Zaku over to run off of the OS designed for coordinators.

While a lot of prejudice between coordinators and naturals still existed in the plants, there technically were no laws discriminating against naturals. A small number of naturals did live in the plants, though most were parents or guardians to first generation coordinator citizens. However, after Junius seven fell to earth and the second war began, a lot of people from smaller countries that allied with Zaft enlisted in the Zaft military. Chairman Durandel was more than pleased to let them in. They were small in number, but weapons where adapted to be used by them. Shinn assigned Duo a generic Ginn, the standard suit used for new recruits and typically is assigned to naturals that are within the Zaft military.

Duo will have to get a physical eventually, so Shinn will know for certain if he is a natural or not, but at the moment Shinn had other problems. Pocketing the report he left off for the area in need of him the most.

* * *

Kira was having a hard time. Just like Shinn before, he found the enemy suits to be piloted by experts.

Moving to his side, he barely dodged a beam attack. Using his superior weapon fire he was able to take out a few mobile suits, but most of the suits would dodge his attacks. In all Kira had been fighting for well over ten minutes and had only been able to disable a handful of enemy suits.

Once realizing that they were in fact weaker in close combat, Kira began using the beam saber's the Freedom came equipped with. Unfortunately it still proved to be difficult as the enemy was very good at keeping a distance large enough to maintain the advantage.

It did not help him that the enemy seemed to be suicidal and would not give up at all. Kira would believe he had disabled a suit, but that same suit would keep fighting. Enemy suits, missing all four limbs and the head camera, would make kamikaze runs to him as a flying torso.

Dearka was worse. His Zaku was customized for heavy weaponry and featured minimal close quarter weapons. He quickly learned that firing his beam rifle at full power could create a large enough beam to destroy a few mobile suits that couldn't get away. However, firing such a large blast drained his power quickly, and since his suit was fitted with a battery rather than a compact fusion drive, such as the Freedom, Dearka could only fire a few shots.

The Eternal was in a defensive run. Not once has it fired any weapon toward the two Nazca class vessels. All that had been deployed was counter measures to keep the ship safe from incoming missiles. The Eternal was not a battle ship, but a mobile suit transport and support ship. A 'new' and quickly abandoned breed of warships, the Eternal was designed to function more like ancient aircraft carriers on Earth. However, the head of the Zaft military figured it was better to add mobile suit hangers to new warship designs. The logic was that a ship can have a dual purpose of carring mobile suits, and be able to fight in space combat.

Threats were made to abandon the Eternal line during production. In an effort to save the ship, the designers placed all the weapons they could onto the existing prototype. The Eternal program was saved, but after the theft of the ship from the Clyne faction, Zaft finally decided to abandon the design. Only two Eternal class vessels were built. The cancellation of the Eternal program did make way to the creation of the Minerva class vessel, which was designed to combat the Alliances Archangel class vessels.

She did not have near the amount of armor or fire power the two Nazca class ships had. Her armor was only half as thick, and made of a weaker metal. She only carried one beam canon, and aside from the two meteor units, not much else. Not as powerful as Goettfrieds or Tristans, the two Meteors could still do massive damage to the Nazca vessels, but lining them up in for a shot would be very difficult. Especially when the enemy vessels had just as much firepower and could just as easily destroy the Eternal.

The Eternal would have to depend on her speed and maneuverability. In the twelve years since her launch, there still has yet to be a faster full size warship.

Yzak was better then Dearka. He knew it, and so did every body else. It pained him to think about his best friend this way. And not much can pain Yzak. But he fully knew he was better.

Yzak also knew he was not as good as the Freedom's pilot. At least not in this Zaku anyway. In Yzak's eyes, Yamato was only better because of the Freedom.

He was not faring as well as Yamato now. His suit was designed for close combat, giving him a little advantage, but he was finding it hard to get in close enough to battle them. His suit was designed to take on other close combat suits, not mid to long range suits.

He had destroyed a couple. From what he could tell, the enemy's suit's were no better then a Ginnor any of Zaft's main battle suit's. But what set them apart was the pilot's. They were coordinated and fast. They would only attack in groups and have to be separated to taken one on one. And that proved to be difficult with the Zaku design beginning to show its age.

Dearka had returned to the Eternal and Yamato was too caught up in the fight that he was unable to provide support. Yzak cursed that the Eternal did not have any other suits. In the hurry to leave the plants, only the two suits he and Dearka had were loaded into the Eternal. The Freedom was always in the Eternal.

The black suits came at him in a new formation. One flew to his side and fired a beam at him. Using his shield he blocked it, but the shield would prove to be useless in a few moments having taken many hits. The shield was beginning to deform from the blast. The shield was magnetized to conduct and dissipate the energy blast through out the shield. It couldn't last forever and every blast caused it to warp just a little bit. Ounce it warps too much though, it would become very brittle and useless.

Drawing his beam saber he flew to the nearby suit, slicing off an arm. Moving quickly the suit spun around and fired a weapon at his Zaku.

The weapon luckily was not a beam, but a normal ballistic weapon. It left Yzak and the Zaku intact, but threw them back. Before Yzak could regain control he was slammed by another enemy suit.

The controls in his cockpit glowed red, warning him if he did not get control soon, he was a dead man. Yzak was not one to just die. He would fight to the finish. Struggling he was eventually able to regain control of his suit.

Ready for battle he screamed and yelled his cry, but only to find no enemy suit's in his area. Just parts of them, all floating and scattered in the space near him.

"You coordinators are really overrated." A voice called out to him.

It was a similar sounding voice. Nothing was showing on Yzak's radar, but he saw the suit out of the corner of his eye.

Turning the Zaku, Yzak came face to face with an odd shaped mobile suit. The suit had a type of elegance to it. It was made of a few shades of dark greens, giving it a commando look, but was off set by gold trim around the armor. It was more stylish then any suit he had seen before. It reminded the white haired boy of the Chinese Dragon.

_Wait a minute_. That voice was familiar. Yzak knew the owner of that voice. Not a close or friendly relationship. In fact, Yzak could only recall the voice because it belonged to a natural boy who he got into fight not to long ago.

"You're, you're that natural boy I met on the beach two days ago!" Yzak screamed his revelation to himself, but the world heard.

Once the battle let up for a moment the green suit rocketed to be face to face with Yzak's suit. Then the boy talked in a voice that equally demanded respect. "You're that idiot from the beach!"

Though the only one's who could recall the action of the faithful day that these two met on the artificial beach was the two said parties, it is without a doubt, not a very friendly first meeting. Judged by their pride and ego, whose was only equal to the others, no-one but these two young men would know what happened that day.

Yzak lunged his suit forward, making a diagonal cut with his beam saber. Fierce power and anger was filling the slash. Yzak did not care about whose side this man was on. The Chinese person as he recalled insulted him and all coordinators greatly. And to top it off, he made a complete fool out of Yzak.

However the boy in the green suit was not stupid and was no rookie for the matter. Though a natural, he had been piloting mobile suits since not long after he could walk, putting three to four times the amount of time spent in the cockpit a day then Yzak would spend in a week.

He was fanatical about his suit. Unlike Yzak, this man was a trained veteran, a master of the mobile suit. A young child prodigy who always wanted to prove he was the best. In his eyes he had to be. He knew that his suit, Nataku, was the only suit in his group that could withstand battle with the deadly Wing Zero. He has twice. Nataku won once and drawed the second. Once against Zecks, and once against Heero.

But not only was his suit a master piece of weaponry, but he himself was. He knew beyond a doubt he was the best in his group. Of course he was better then that idiot Duo, and the weakling Quatra. Trowa could prove to be a worthy adversary if he battled in the Heavy Arms, but Heero Yui was his only equal. Heero Yui, the one man who was not his enemy, but the man that the boy wanted to defeat more than anyone else.

Being the veteran he was, the Chinese boy easily dodged Yzak's attack. Then the next and the attacks that followed. He could read every move the white haired individual was making. It also helped that his mobile suit, a true Gundam, was capable of far greater maneuverability and was a vastly superior machine.

But now was not the time to fight a meaningless battle. He already got a lesson on that. Using a quick moved he sliced his trident at the blue suit, forcing it to move off its attack and rebound into a defensive position. However Wufie did not let him counter and caught Yzak off guard by using his dragon fang to surprise Yzak. The fang tore off one of Yzak's suit's arm's rendering the suit near useless.

Wufie let out a momentary laugh of satisfaction to push it over Yzak's ego. He kicked the Zaku away and then piloted the dragon suit and continued the battle against the mobile dolls.

* * *

Duo stumbled into a rest area. The room was sound proof with glass windows that looked out onto the mobile suit hanger. Duo stood in silence as he watched people run around in a near panic trying to get everything in order. A small bit of guilt was felt, but Duo was not a leader. He figured it was best to leave them alone.

And that is what Duo did. He waited till he was called.

Loosing interest in the other side of the window, he noticed vending machines in the opposite corner of the room. They featured soda and alcoholic beverages. Made sense, since coordinators had a much higher alcohol consumption ability than naturals. He could really go for a beer at the moment, but now was not the time. Anyway, the alcohol machine had a lock and did not dispense any alcoholic beverages during combat times.

Pulling out change he had in his pocket, Duo was able to purchase a soft drink.

Sitting down and slowly taking drinks every now and then, Duo contemplated what he should do. Should he escape? It would be difficult in this Zaft ship, but of course now would be the time to do it because everybody was distracted. But if he did leave, then were would he go? His first order of business should be to retrieve the Deathscythe. Of all the people, Trowa would have taken good care of it. But that's only if he decides to get involved. After all, it wasn't his country or even his world for that matter. Sure, he knew the enemy, but that didn't make it his responsibility.

He had no doubt they would ask him to join. Maybe that Shinn would try to force him too. But Duo knew he would amount to very little if he stayed with that Ginn. If he wanted to make a difference, than he would need the Deathscythe. He needed to become the god of death once again.

The back door opened up and girl rushed in. She looked to be on the brink of exhaustion. She clung to a clip board in her hands as if her life depended on it. Her red hair covered her face, and Duo did not know if she was ignoring him or did not realize he was there.

She purchased a small bag of chips and sat down on the opposite end of the bench. She let a small noise escape her mouth. Either it was a sigh or cry, Duo sprang to action.

"Uh. Excuse me Miss." Duo said hesitantly.

The girl jump, startled to death. Apparently she did not realize that Duo was there when she entered. After a moment she smiled a little and tried to get her image back together.

"Sorry I scared you, but you look like you have been working too much."

"No it is okay. I was nearing the end of my shift when this happened and I have not been able to leave my station for the last fifteen hours."

"Man that is the pits. What exactly is your job if you do not mind me asking?" Duo got up and moved closer to the girl. She was cute. She had red hair with blue eyes that went perfect with her Caucasian face. Not necessarily Duo's type, but he was not a picky man. He actually found her to be rather attractive, in a sweet and innocent way.

"I work as the head CIC officer on this ship. The captain is giving me a small break."

"Is that so huh. Well my name is Duo Maxwell. I am not affiliated with Orb or Zaft, but that may change soon." Duo held out his hand in a friendly gesture.

She took his hand and shook it. "Meyrin Hawke. My sister and her fiancée are the ones in command of the Zaft forces mobile suit here." She smiled at Duo.

Her shyness was starting to break down. _Man I am good._ Duo thought. Unbeknown to him, that he himself was acting shy to her. "Wait you talking about a short black haired guy, and a purple haired girl?"

"Sounds like them. Commander Asuka and Major Hawke. Or Lunamaria Hawke. She is my older sister."

_So she does have a sister._ Duo smiled at his realization. He was about to ask her something, something that if past experiences where any indication would ruin the nice conversation he was having with her. In all, it would have been something really stupid. Images of what happened to him and Hildy flashed through his mind. It did not end well, lets just say.

The door burst opened and now the room housed the two and a very angry Lunamaria Hawke. This perhaps saved Duo.

Meyrin tried to wave at her older sister, but was met with a cold brush. Instead Luna's attention was aimed straight at Duo.

"Duo Maxwell!" She shouted while pointing a finger at him for a no apparent reason.

"Uh, yeah you found me." Duo said smartly, upset that his time with Meyrin was cut short. Right when he was getting somewhere.

"You lied to me. You said you where a natural, not a coordinator!"

"Yeah, I am a natural. I don't think I am a coordinator. Last time I checked I was not."

"Don't get smart with me Maxwell. You told us that you were a natural, so we placed you in an Ginn with the natural OS running. But before we engaged in combat you switched the OS over to the coordinator OS."

"Huh." Duo put his hand to his chin and struck an intellectual pose. "Oh yeah, I did not like how the suit handled at first, so I switched it over. The other one worked better."

"You did not answer my question. Why did you lie?"

"Because he did not." Finally being able to get a minute away Shinn walked in. "Hey Meyrin." He waved at her. This was followed by Luna realizing that her sister was in the same room. "When you told me you were one of the best, you were not kidding. Were did you learn to pilot like that?"

Duo smiled and did his famous back head rub/scratch.

"You won't tell me. Well if you are trying to leave your past life behind, then I can respect that. Though if anyone told me that a natural could pilot with a coordinator OS then I would quickly counter that statement. Or a natural that could out perform a gundam in a mass produced Ginn with a coordinator OS."

"Ha, yeah a 'gundam'." Duo let out under his breathe. Everyone however did heard it.

Luna just stared at Shinn. "Are you serious? You believe him?" Luna questioned. Meyrin stayed in the back with an amazement shock on her face.

"He has gained my trust. Anyway I think you know what I am going to ask so I'll just let you think about it. Zaft will not force you to join, but we really wish that you will."

"Well I was thinking about that."

"Duo." Meyrin broke her silent streak to finally speak. "You are not going to leave us, are you?" Her out of character-ness was noticed by both Luna and Shinn. Her face, words, and actions were completely unlike the shy Meyrin they knew.

All it took was for one look at her face for Duo to agree to stay. "All right. I'll help, but I will not become a member of Zaft. Just think of it as an alliance we have between us two." He saying this caused Meyrin to beam with brightness.

"All right." Shinn said.

Luna was speechless. From both Shinn's forwardness and kindness, and not to mention trust with Duo, and also Meyrin's automatic ease and obvious attraction to Maxwell. Everyone liked this guy to much and too fast. And there were so many protocols that Shinn just broke. Only a member of faith could approve what he just did.

Shinn turned his attention to Luna. "Luna, you are in charge here. You know what to do. Meanwhile, I have received orders to assemble a team and head out, where we will meet up with the Tsukumiya under Chief Commander Zala and await further orders. We're already on our way, so you have about seven hours." Shinn motioned for Duo to follow and leave. "Luna, you're coming to. It should not take to long to get everything ready down here, and then I want you to rest, okay?"

Luna nodded. "And I hope that you will come with us on this mission Duo."

Duo thought it over. "What the heck. I'll go."

Luna finally recovered from the shock she received during Shinn's long tirade. "Yeah, yeah. I'll have the Impulse and Destiny ready to leave. Enjoy your time together boys."

"Oh, you know we will." Duo said in his common cheerfulness. He and Shinn both left, leaving the two sisters to them self's.

They stood there in silence for a moment. Luna reviewed her orders, while Meyrin was both worried and excited. The Tsukumiya was Athrun's ship and she ounce served on it. The two had not seen each other for some, having only a brief romantic relationship. They however remained friends, since they did work together quiet often. Meyrin transferred to the Musai to be with her sister and Shinn, but was still the head CIC technician of the Eternal, and one the rare occasion that the Eternal launched, Athrun usually was on board.

"How much time do you have left Meyrin?" Luna asked. Her voice was dead serious.

"Uh." Meyrin fumbled around her clip board to check her watch. "About ten minutes. Then I have to back on the bridge."

"Ten minutes. So spill it. What just happened between you and Maxwell?"

Meyrin knew it was coming, but was still not ready for it. She let out a small laugh. It was going to be a long ten minutes.

* * *

_What is the point of being the ultimate coordinator if these guys are better then me_? Kira thought to himself. These enemy suits where tough. To him it was like fighting the Justice after the Justice and they were piloted by pilots who were only slightly worst then Athrun.

But in reality they were not Justices. They were cheap looking suits that blew apart easily when hit. Problem was hitting them. Kira had to admit, if he was in the previous incarnation of the Freedom he would be doing worse. He would have an easier time if he was fighting to kill rather than disable.

But their forces where thinning out. He had less and less to constantly worry and dodge fire from. Funny, that he did not remember taking out so many of the enemy suits. Dearka and Yzak must be having better luck.

Just then a green suit obstructed his view. The suit had no wings but moved with grace and speed as if it had. It easily out performed the enemy suits and cut them up into many pieces. Before Kira could realize it all the enemy suits where gone.

Kira looked out at the near empty space. It's only occupants where himself, the green suit, and all the destroyed enemy suits. It angered Kira that, though, this suit saved him, he had mercilessly killed the enemy.

"Yamato get out of the way!" Yzak screamed over the comm. Kira moved back as the crippled Zaku attacked the green suit only to loss its other arm to the same dragon fang.

Then a voice that sounded incredible similar to Yzak's, but with a Chinese accent spoke out, "I am not your enemy so stop attacking me!"

Yzak was not about to give in, he was going to attack even if it meant losing his life. His ego was in full control. "Your in league with them NATURAL!"

Yzak attacked with the machine guns placed in his head. Wufie grew tired of the boy and using his trident he decapitated the Zaku. "Are all you coordinators this stupid? If so, then I am surprised you are all still alive."

"You sound like a member of Blue Cosmos. That's who you are! You're coordinator hater!"

"Blue Cosmos? I do hate the idea of messing with a child's genes. But I am not your enemy."

"You despicable..."

"THATS ENOUGH!" Kira yelled out to Yzak. He had no idea what was going on, but now was not the time to be discussing it. Looking off into the distance he could see the Eternal calling them back and the two enemy ships retreating. He turned his attention to the green suit before him. "You say you're not an enemy?"

"Yes." was Wufie's reply.

"Will you come with us?"

"That was my intention."

Kira aimed his beam rifle at the green suit. Wufie did not react to this. "This is just a precaution. I will escort you to out ship."

Wufie replied with a smirk. He knew they did not trust him. "I would not have it any other way."

* * *

After a short talk, Shinn assigned Duo a room. Saying that combat was expected he wanted Duo to be well rested as the maintenance crew reloaded his suit. Shinn also went over the details about the meeting with Athrun Zala. As Duo figured, it won't be the typical military meeting. Shinn if anything looked worried and nervous, which Duo could understand due to the situation, but Duo had a feeling that Shinn was acting this way over something else.

And Duo was right. Currently Shinn and the Captain of the vessel were the only ones who knew, but they have been cut off from Zaft. According to reports, the Yamato family was killed of by a terrorist group, which seemed impossible. That meant that either Zaft thought they were dead, or Zaft is trying to kill them. This whole trip to meet up with the Tsukumiya was to figure out what was going on, but since communication with the Plants was cut, the latter seemed the more appropriate choice.

After being left alone, Duo pondered what to do. He was supposed to get some rest, but that fighting today was nothing. He was used to more, and if anything, he invited more fights. He was rather rusty and the easy fights were good practice. Speaking of being rusty, Duo needed to check his mail.

Duo moved himself from the bed and booted up the computer terminal. It took a few moments, as it always did when you were deep in space, but he was finally able to open up and internet browser and look at his email. Just as he suspected, Trowa had left him a little gift. Duo opened the mail to read a short but to the point letter.

"Duo, I decided to give back your present. I have already sent it on its way. You know the tracking number." The letter ended there. Trowa never left more than was necessary.

The letter had a little bit of code talk in it. The package referred to the Duo's mobile suit transport shuttle, and tracking number meant the password for the shuttled computer.

Duo still remembered the password and after a few moments he logged into his shuttle's navigation computer and obtained its position. It wasn't far, perhaps a few hours away.

Duo, working like magic, was able to hack into the Musai's navigation station and look at the Musai's location. After talking with Shinn, Duo knew where they were going to meet the two other ships. One was the Eternal and the other was the Tsukumiya. Doing a little more looking around, Duo was able to learn of the other two ships locations and with all that knowledge determined the meeting location of the rendezvous point.

Duo then sent his shuttle some commands. He programmed it to follow directly behind the Musai. As long as the Musai did not change it's course than Duo wouldn't have to worry about the shuttle missing the rendezvous. It would take about an hour and a half, but the shuttle should meet up with the Musai. Duo would just have to tell Shinn and wait for it.

Before getting up, he erased the computers recent activities. He then left the room in hopes of finding Shinn or Meyrin.

* * *

A young man stood outside, staring at the stars. It was night in the Scandinavian land. The sky however was blacker than usual.

But it was a sky he was familiar with. Not necessarily because the constellations and the stars were identical. But rather the feel was familiar to him. The feel of dread and fear. A feeling in the night that only comes with war. A war that was one the verge of happening.

Soon the night will be much blacker then it is now. Soon the days will be too. Though this land where his home stands is similar to his former home of years in the past, it had a worse fear of war.

No. He takes that back. They, the people, do not fear war. They know it. They have grown up with it. They have experienced more hatred and prejudiced then he had ever had before. No, they were not afraid of war. They were afraid that they are numb to war.

Though this land carries a peaceful facade, one of good times that over shadow the bad, it carries dark hidden secrets of the past. No, not secrets. But facts that nobody talked about for the memories or thoughts that came up were too terrible to deal with anymore.

A calm hand became to rest on his shoulder. A small, tinny, delicate hand that belonged to the one person who meant more then the world to him. His wife.

Ever since they came into this world, they decided he would not fight again. He did not have to anymore was what he told her once before, and she was going to hold him up to that promise.

No. He would not fight again. But he still possessed something that could turn the war either way. He had a weapon. A weapon of enormous power. A mobile suit that he was surprised that his wife among all people had rebuilt. A weapon of fear. One that could take the lives of so many, yet spur the will of many others.

It was his little secret. Their secret. He, his wife, and his few friends, who knew of the existence of such a weapon. That's right. Deep beneath his very feet, Heero Yuy kept the Wing Zero hidden.

The soft hand now no longer on is shoulder, but joined by its twin around his waste. A head full of hair lay resting against his back.

"Come inside." She says. A loving plea that had purely selfish reason's behind it.

"It's starting."

"We knew it would."

The man turned around and held his wife. "You're right, let's go inside." slowly they headed to their home. Enjoying each other's step in unison with the others. No matter how dark the night, or the day, or how much pain and change the war will bring, their love will keep them together.

But as the war was starting, both of them knew Wing Zero would have to make its appearance. The single Gundam alone represented more then the other four all together. Now was not the time though. Zero would have to wait.

Wait for it's time to fight. Wait for it's time to mean something. Wait for it's time to make a difference. But first it had to wait for its new pilot.

**Okay, next chapter will be the first new one. Tell me what you guys think. I think I fixed all the continuity errors in the last chapter and in this one. Please review. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, here is the first new chapter. Expect many changes, and thanks for all the reviews.**

**Chapter 4**

Shinn with Lunamaria and the Captain were grouped around the captains table, a table size tablet computer, used on the bridge for strategy planning. Shinn had been in charge of vessels before, and had been in command of this vessel for a number of months. Within his time as a high ranking member of the Zaft military he had faced a number of difficult situations. This however was one of the most disturbing.

After numerous attempts, the Musai could not contact Zaft. There was no electronic interference in the area. It was more like he was being denied connection to the Plants. This was rather unsettling. He did however receive the regular Zaft television programming and was able to ketch the news. From what they said, a radical terrorist group within the Plants launched an attack and killed many members of the counsel. This didn't sit well with Shinn.

The news showed the members that were known to be dead. Nearly all of them, Shinn recognized as members of the Clyne faction. Only a handful did Shinn not know, but he just knew in his gut that they were also members. It seems somebody is trying to kill them off. The general public does not know the names of the head members of the Clyne faction. It was one of the biggest kept secrets. To Shinn's knowledge only Lacus Yamato and her husband by association where the only people who have publicly declared that they were members.

If Zaft was after the Clyne faction, then that would mean the Chairman is getting ready for something big. It was unsettling for sure, but it made sense. It explained why they were cut off from contact with the military command. Shinn himself was in fact a ranking member of the Clyne faction.

Currently, they all were heading to meet up with Athrun's ship, the Tsukumiya. They picked a place in the middle of nowhere that was equal distance to them all. Currently they were scheduled to be there in four hours.

"Shinn," Meyrin said from her station at the CIC, "The chairman is about to release a statement."

Shinn removed his attention from the map on the table and spoke to her. "Play it throughout the ship."

Meyrin nodded her head, and through a few controls at the CIC station, she began broadcasting the press release on every screen in the ship.

* * *

"Everything has checked out alright Captain." Ivan said as he followed Borodin through the halls. The captain just finished a long day on the bridge. The ship, which was still new, was not without its problems.

"What about the alarm in the munitions sector?" Borodin asked.

"It was a small radiation leak from the protective shielding on an antimatter tank. The repairs teams have already isolated the problem and are expected to have it repaired within the hour."

"That is no small problem." Antimatter leaks were rare and often fatal. For one to happen and be repaired without any casualties was almost unheard of. And with the latest in technological protection, antimatter leaks have become mostly things of the past. Having one could be nerve wrecking.

"The antimatter has already been pumped out and into a reserve tank. Thankfully the leak was caught by a sensor and there are no reports of anybody being harmed. However, the repairs have put us behind schedule. We will not be able to participate in the Onogoro invasion."

Borodin nodded as he made his way to the captain's private dinning room. He had a special meeting taking place over supper and he had to get it ready.

"Well good day then Ivan. Get some rest, and report to the bridge at 0100." Borodin removed his captain's hat and placed it under shoulder. He reached for the door, but paused. "Ivan, you wouldn't mind bring me my dinner would you?"

"Not at all Sir. Should I make it for one or two?"

"Two Ivan. And bring the special."

Ivan saluted the captain and made his way to the cafeteria. Borodin inhaled a large breathe and entered into his private room.

The room was dark. A tad bit less illuminated than usual. The only lighting was from a candle on the dinning room table. The candle was not in the center of the table as one would normally have it, but it sat on the end illuminating the pages of a book as someone read it. The book itself was being read by none other than Rear Admiral Gates, the Romefellar admiral assigned to the Cairo.

Gates withdrew his attention from the book and greeted the captain. "Ah captain, what a pleasure that you invited me."

Gates was an Admiral. Thus he was ranked higher than Borodin. This room was a private room to Borodin, and anyone could face an evening in the brig for breaking in. But since gates was an Admiral there was not a thing that Borodin could do, but glare at him disapprovingly. In this case, the ship belonged to the Admiral, not the captain.

Gates continued. "I always enjoyed reading about the religions that people used to believe. Some religions only lasted a few generations and give us insight on what people lived like back then. But ones such as this, people have been worshipping for thousands of years, and some people still do today. I however don't believe in any of it, but the beauty of the way it is written still gets to me. While the language is rather basic, the way the words are used and the symbolism are all just breath taking. Wouldn't you agree?"

Borodin removed his over coat and hung it on a coat hanger. "Yes I do."

"See take these older testament books. The two Samuels and the two Kings are excellent books about kings waging war. But I have always loved the book of Acts. It features the beginnings of epic journeys. You have an evil antagonist turned into a good protagonist. The basic story elements and archetypes invented here make up most of our current literature. If I may ask, what is your favorite book?"

"I've always been fond Hebrews and Galatians, Admiral."

Gates raised his hand. "Please Captain. This here is an informal arrangement. At the table let's leave the rank behind."

Borodin nodded his head. "Very well."

Gates closed the book and moved his chair forward. "So Hebrews and Galatians. I myself have found those books to be rather boring and difficult to read. So why would a man like you claim they are your favorites? Don't tell me." Gates paused while thinking. "I can only assume that since those books are mostly teachings of how to live your normal everyday life, I can only assume that on some point or another that you are a religious man. And since you claimed those two, I can guess that you follow the new covenant teachings and are no way interested in the literary aspects of the book."

"You are correct Sir."

"Well." Gates jumped back in his chair rather enthusiastically. "This is rather exciting. It's a gift I have had ever since I was a child. I could always deduce the smallest things about a person with just a little bit of knowledge about them. I never would've taken you as a religious person. But I would have assumed that a religious man would take better care of the Bible that he kept in his cabin."

Borodin got up from his chair and obtained the beat up book. I was true. The spine was split and the cover torn. Many pages have ripped and sat snug within the other pages of the book. Borodin then proceeded to put the book on a bookcase. "It belonged to my wife."

"Ah, so it has some sentimental value to it. I apologies for reading it without your permission." Gates said as Borodin returned to the table. "I rather enjoy this conversation and could talk all day with you about it, but we have much to discuss. Might we well begin before the food arrives?"

"Yes."

Gates move forward and folded his hands on the table. "I have heard that there was small leak. And that this will not allow us to participate in the Onogoro invasion."

"It is a small antimatter leak. The engineer informs me that it's nothing to worry about, but yes we will not be able to make it."

"I must say that I'm a little disappointed. The Monitor will have to do it alone. You know that this means that that ship will have engaged in combat twice before this ship. This ship was commissioned two month earlier than that one."

"I understand sir, but we have been having a lot of mechanical problems."

"I am well aware of all our problems. From the blueprints and the construction journals, this ship should be perfect. There should never be a flaw, but now we have missed out on both the capture of White Base and the invasion. Both times we have not been able to participate due to mechanical failures in the ship. I find it hard to believe."

"I share your sentiments, but it can't be helped. What has happened has happened. All we can do is repair it and engage in battle the next time."

Gates leaned back in his chair. "That is not exactly what I was implying." Borodin gave Gates a quizzical look. "What I was implying Marco is that we may have a saboteur on board."

Borodin let out a small chuckle. "Yes, I myself have thought of that, but I really don't believe so."

"You don't think that a member of the crew could sympathize with Orb. This is a large vessel with a large crew. The captain would be unable to keep watch over every one of them. Remember that the Clyne faction allied with Orb in both wars. I think that if a Clyne faction member was on board, he may do so again."

"It is possible Sir. I will put the ship on alert."

"That Captain may not be enough. You see a saboteur can be anyone. From a young insignificant cook to a high ranking officer. Say the saboteur was a young private, who went around, unhooking lines and cutting wires in his time off shift, he couldn't be working alone. No, someone would have to tell him what to do."

"What are you implying?"

"This ship has a radio blackout. Radio or signals of any kind for that matter can not come or leave this ship without coming through the bridge first. No mere private can get in contact with anyone outside the ship. But I myself have monitored all the signals coming to and fro. So he is not receiving orders from anyone outside the ship, thus he must be receiving orders from a higher ranking member of the vessel." Gates eyed Borodin for moments that seemed like forever. "But, if the member was high enough in Rank, then he may not need to sabotage the ship at all. Rather all he would need to do it say that it has been sabotaged."

Borodin no longer felt comfortable in his chair. "Are you implying that I am sabotaging my ship?"

"Take it however you like Captain, but it doesn't necessarily look good for you in the eyes of Romafellar."

A knock was heard at the door. Borodin made no move from his seat as he and Gates were caught in an eye staring contest. The knock repeated itself before Borodin answered.

Ivan walked in the room followed by the ships head chef. "Admiral and Captain, I have brought your dinner."

"Ah." Gates no longer had a serious look on his face, but was smiling. "Good, I'm famished." He waved at the chef to bring his food.

Borodin and Gates both received identical plates. On them was an elegant Italian dish with a hint of herb on the side. A slice of a brownish pie sat next to the plate. After placing the two plates and filled both men's glasses of wine he began to leave.

"Looks good." Gates inhaled deeply. "And smells good. Wait." He yelled out to grab Ivan's attention. "I only see two plates. You not going to join use Ivan?"

"Forgive me Admiral, but I have matters to attend to. I merely was insuring that the chef made the dish correctly."

"Come now lad, I and everyone on this ship knows that you always eat with the Captain. Don't let me be a bother and not let you join."

"Again I must ask for you to forgive me Sir, but the matters I must attend to are urgent. If I don't go then you would be burdened with the same matters at a later time."

"Well very then. If it's that urgent then go attend to it. I would hate to not be able to finish my meal." Gates waved his hand as Ivan left.

Gates breathed in heavily. "Well captain, shall we begin?"

"Yes." Borodin began eating.

"To be perfectly honest, since I was a child I always ate the desert before the rest of the meal. I know that this is awkward as we are enjoying a formal dinner, but I hope that you in no way would think of me as a glutton or a pig."

"Not at all." Borodin said between bites. He remained calm and neutral.

Gates took a bite of his desert. "Aww." That is delicious. Gates then began shoving the desert into his mouth. The formality at the table was gone. "This is truly splendid. I have never tasted anything like this before."

"I'm glade you enjoy. It's one of my favorites and I get it all the time."

"Well you must tell me what it is. This way I can be sure to get it every time." Gates had finished the slice of pie and was whipping his face with a napkin.

Borodin himself stopped eating. "It's a dish that my mother used to make. It's a mixture of peanut butter and honey with a whip topping.."

Gates immediately stopped moving. He had a deathly scare expression. "Peanut butter?"

"Yes. I love it."

Worry and shock. Those were the expressions that Gates expressed. Borodin let out a sly grin while Gates eyes went wide.

Gates started to get up from his chair. He placed set the table back to the way it was. "I'll return."

"Now admiral it is impolite to leave. You have already eaten your desert first. You have to try the main course."

"I'm sorry captain, but," Gates appeared to be having a difficult time breathing. Sweat was rolling down the man's face. "But, I believe I am needed else ware at the moment." Gates turned to head out the door.

"You look rather sick admiral. Under normal circumstances I would tell you to go to the infirmary, however if you want to keep your true identity as a natural secret, then I suggest you sit back down." Borodin commanded. His tone was authoritative for the tables had turned.

Gates froze in his tracks. His difficulty breathing was getting worse by the second. "How…how…how…do you know that?"

Borodin got up and forced Gates back into his chair. "I wouldn't worry about that. If I was you, I would be more concerned about how I knew you were fatally allergic to peanut butter." Borodin bent down to speak to the man eye to eye. "A coordinator wouldn't have an allergic reaction to something as common as peanut butter. Something like that is too easy for the genetic doctors to fix. But you have a rare fatal reaction to it. It may as well be poison."

Gates let out a squeal as his lungs took in the last breathe they could. He threw himself to the floor, trying anything to force himself to breathe.

"But you were right admiral. You were correct about everything you said about me earlier. You were successful in determining my religious beliefs through the knowledge of my two favorite books. You were even right about the sabotage." Borodin paused. "There is no saboteur on board. There is no radiation leak, and there was never anything wrong with the engines. In accordance with the engineers who built this ship, she has been functioning perfectly."

Borodin reached into the Admirals pockets and removed a set of keys. "We're actually not so different. I actually grew up under your rule in your world. I grew up in the colonies under prosecution from the Earth Alliance. I was young when Oz was assembled. I must say that I am rather disappointed that I was here, in this world, while the colonies where liberated from your rule. But I was here and I watched as I was powerless to stop Romafellar from taking over Zaft." Borodin did not wait for the man to draw his last breath for there was no need too.

Borodin opened the door to find Ivan waiting for him outside. "Is it done Captain?" Ivan asked.

"Yes. Call the doctor and address the ship on the death of the admiral. Don't let the crew know it how he died."

"Sir?"

"The crew would be outraged to learn that their admiral was a natural. It would only cause them to doubt their leadership. The crew will do nearly everything I say without question, but not if they begin doubting me. And we must have their complete cooperation till we get to the rendezvous."

"I understand Sir. I will get straight to it." Ivan saluted, and one of the rare times the two went separate ways down the hall.

* * *

Duo roamed the halls of the Musai. The ship was rather old and was beginning to show its age. The paint on the walls was very thick, caused by excess paint being constantly applied to it by pilots whose commanders thought they had nothing else to do. The doors had scraps and scratches and glints of aluminum and steel glistened on the edges. The Musai was a Luarasia class, and thus had a confusing bulk head assembly that made it real easy to get lost. But in all, Duo noticed that the ship was well taken care of. Sure, grease and grim built up on the mechanical parts, but as a whole, the crew took very good care of the ship.

Duo stopped first at the mobile suit hanger. The hanger was a bit larger than on most ships for the single room housed the hanger, the maintenance bay, and the main engine room. Duo unfortunately was unable to find anyone he knew. He was told however that Shinn, Lunamaria and Meyrin would more than likely be up on the bridge. Duo was no idiot when it came to military affairs, and he himself knew he would not be allowed on the bridge.

After rambling for a few minutes he came across the pilot's lounge. Similar to the one he was in before, this lounge was made for the pilots to rest between sorties. Aside from the beverage machines, the room was furnished with two couches which faced a large television set. There even were a small number of beds in the back, for the pilots to grab a wink of sleep between heavy combat operations.

Duo grabbed himself a drink and sat down on the sofa. He was watching some kind of sitcom from the Plants. Midway, the show was interrupted and the Plants chairman was displayed. The chairman was a slender man. He had a feminine look. He didn't look physically opposing. More of a schemer Duo thought.

"People of the Plant's please listen to me." The chairman began. "We have just been hit with a major tragedy. Early this morning former chairwoman Lacus Yamato and her husband were murdered in their home."

Duo nearly hit the floor when he heard this. This seemed unlikely, but just right up Romafellar's tactics.

"We have received reports that this was a terrorist act placed against the plants in the effort to cripple our government. Among the former chairwoman were many other members of the Zaft counsel. Some of them have been with us along time, and some where dear friends of mine."

As Duo was watching the alarm in the ship sounded. The television went blank and it began flashing a red alert signal.

As Duo was wondering what had happen, Meyrin voice came over the speakers, telling the crew to get ready for mobile suit combat. Getting up and leaving everything behind Duo left the room and headed to the hanger.

* * *

Kira watched as the members of people that have been killed played on the screen. He immediately recognized all of them as members of the Clyne faction.

"However, we have not been sitting ideally by. We have already identified the group that is responsible for these acts. It's a group called the Zaft Liberation Society."

"Zaft Liberation Society? I've never heard of them." Lacus said out load.

The screen changed to show another group of people. These people where alive. Among them were Athrun Zala, Shinn Asuka, Commander Joule and a number of other Clyne faction members.

"This is only a handful of the known members of the group. These people are the higher ranking officials. These people are the ones who directly committed the acts. The Zaft liberation Society was a small faction of the military that until recently only had differing ideals. But with these latest attacks, I see the acts as nothing other than terrorism."

"Why are you…?" The Dearka began to ask Yzak.

"Everyone person on that list if a pivotal member of the Clyne faction," Lacus answered him. "That's why he is on there."

"Huh?"

"During the last two wars the Clyne faction rebelled against the Zaft rulers and was vital to ending both wars. The chairman is planning something, and whatever it is, he wants the Clyne faction out of the way. He is framing the Clyne faction and us respectively."

"It's not as simple as that." The Chinese boy Wufie entered the bridge and gave his two cents. "The people who were supposedly killed were members of the Clyne faction as well as their suspected murderers. He is splitting the Clyne faction. The chairman can't possible know who all the members of the Clyne faction are, so he is manipulating the surviving members. Members of the faction will begin to suspect other Clyne members of the crime and eventually they will turn on each other and he's hoping they will destroy each other."

"That's impossible. He couldn't…" Dearka began.

Wufie interrupted. "The people in the Clyne faction are ordinary people just like in any military. If you know how, you can control anyone by manipulation. The Clyne faction was never against the current Chairman, so a lot of the Clyne faction members will in fact trust what he is saying without question."

"So if what you are saying is true, the Chairman has just taken over the entire government of the Plants."

Wufei snorted. "The Chairman is just a figure head. The entire Romafellar party is behind this. But he doesn't necessarily have one hundred percent control. He messed up and it could get ugly for him."

The bridge was silent for a moment until it dawned on Kira. "Lacus."

"Exactly. The leader of the Clyne faction. The people of the Plants and the Clyne faction will listen to her over the Chairman. So killing her is among his top priorities."

The chairman continued on the television screen. "However, we will not tolerate these actions. I therefore will call upon all of you to inform military personnel if you know the location of one of these people. We must stop this organization. We will not tolerate these actions against us."

* * *

Shinn loaded up into the Destiny. The alarm sounded right in the middle of the chairman's speech. Shinn did see enough to know that he is now on the most wanted list, but now was not the time. "Meyrin, what do we have?"

"One Minerva class vessel. Name and registry are unknown."

"Unknown?"

"Yes. The ship has unknown equipment. Here, I'll show you." Meyrin pulled up a screen remotely on the Destiny that displayed the incoming ship.

It was undoubtedly a Minerva class, but it was different than all others. It was pure black, making many of its details very difficult to see. The hull around the hanger appeared to be modified and enlarged. Shinn expected it to be carrying more mobile suits than the usual load for a Minerva class. It lacked deep space engines and had auxiliary thrusters installed then their place. It couldn't travel great distances in space on its own. From what Shinn could tell, it had more weapons and more mobile suits, but was made for escorts and defense.

"Do we have any bases out here?"

"Not on record."

"That ship can't travel far on its own. Do sensors pick up anything?"

"Negative. Once the ship came into our radar, it began releasing N-jammers." Releasing N-jammers was a declaration of attack and it would immediately set of the Musai's alarm. "Shinn, they are releasing mobile suits. Eight unidentified mobile suits!"

The Destiny was finally loaded onto the catapult. Shinn checked his engine and made sure the battery was charged. Everything looked good.

The screen in his cockpit changed and eight black mobile suits appeared to be leaving the Minerva class and on an intercepting course with the Musai. They were larger then the mobile dolls had had been fighting earlier. They were bulky and crude, but very menacing.

Duo then yelled into the comm. "This ain't good! Those are Virgo's."

"Virgo?" Shinn asked Duo.

Everyone was listening as Duo explained. "The Virgo was the first mobile doll, specifically built as a mobile doll. Instead of pilots, they have a much smarter computer. They're a full generation ahead of the Taurus mobile dolls we where fighting before."

"So they are better than the one's we have fought?"

"Yes."

Shinn had enough. He wasn't going to hold back anymore. He was mad and angry. Emotionally he was a little shaken up. He was just placed on the galaxies most wanted list, and the chairman basically gave orders to kill him on sight. If it wasn't for the alarm going off, the crew of the Musai would have probably followed the Chairman's orders and either have killed him, or throw him in the brig.

"Okay, Shinn, listen to me." Duo began. "I know a few tricks to fighting these."

Shinn slammed his fist in his cockpit. "Whatever!" Shinn yelled out. He flipped a switch calling for the catapult to be clear. "Shinn Asuka launching!"

And without waiting to listen to Duo, Shinn launched out of the Musai ahead of everybody else.

"That idiot!" Duo yelled. As per regulation, this time he was forced to adorn a space suit. This change in wardrobe caused him to launch after Shinn. He was about a minute behind Shinn, but that was long enough for Shinn to get in trouble.

Duo knew the advances of the Virgo over the Taurus. Unlike the Taurus, which was weak in close range combat, the Virgo was designed to compensate for this. It had a differing frame that worked with the computers slower reaction time, to allow the doll to successfully fight at close range. The Virgo was also smarter. No pilot meant the area which was normal taken by a cockpit was replaced with a high intelligence learning computer. In essence, room for a bigger computer meant a smarter machine. And finally, the Virgo was much better at movement and carried much more powerful weapons than the Taurus.

Duo hit his Ginn's afterburners and accelerated to the suits top speed. It wasn't fast enough, as Duo was forced to watch as Shinn went charging the suits head on.

* * *

Shinn powered the Destiny's wings of light and was thrown back into his seat by the inertia. The Destiny began to vibrate slightly as Shinn began pushing the engines to their limits. He sat with only the sounds of the engines to accompany him as he made his way to the enemy. It seemed to last an eternity to get there.

Shinn slammed the audio button off to avoid the noises of his team mates. He could do this. He was Shinn Asuka, the only person to defeat the Freedom.

The Taurus from before attacked in large spread out groups. Usually about five or more suits would engage an enemy, but they would all be far enough apart where you would have to target them individually. It was a standard battle tactic to force your opponent to spread his fire. But these Virgo's did no such thing. They stayed together all in one group and charged Shinn ahead.

'Ping' went Shinn's instrument panel. It was his range finder. The target was in weapons range and they were all still grouped together. Easy picking.

Rather than charging in and engaging them in close combat, Shinn reversed the wings of light thrust till the Destiny came to a near stop. Shinn activeated the Destiny's main beam weapon, the M2000GX high energy beam rifle. Due to a more advanced coil and an upgraded nuclear reactor on the Destiny the weapon had a greater range as well as a shorter recharge cycle. The weapon could now fire a full blast every three seconds until it needed to cool down. The single beam produced by the weapon could destroy a mid-level armored ship such as escort ships and cruisers, which was quiet a feat for a mobile suit. It was big enough that the enemy couldn't possible avoid it.

Shinn lined up the reticals and centered the three suits. And 'ERRR' sound was made telling Shinn that the target was locked. Without hesitation, Shinn pulled the trigger.

White hot light left the weapon. It lit up the sky and cast a silhouette behind the Destiny. It sliced through space till it hit its target. A massive explosion erupted as the beam scattered and flared.

Shinn laughed as the light from the blast filled space. It was rather easy he thought. Another small ding reverberated in the tiny cock pit indication the rifle was ready to fire again. Nearly immediately his range finder pinged again.

'More targets?' Shinn thought. Then the Destiny's weapons lock alarm began blaring. All combat mobile suits will have a weapons lock detection system of some for or another. It would detect enemy weapon rangers and laser sights, which were used to zero weapons. The Destiny's cockpit would emit an annoying ping sound to inform the pilot that the enemy had locked on to him.

And Shinn couldn't believe it. Out from the blast, the suits that he previously fired upon all flew through unharmed. His beam weapon did nothing.

He sat unbelieving for a split second. He was too good a pilot to loose his concentration because they stopped his attack. He forced the Destiny in a full thrust backward at an 8 o clock angle. This maneuver was just enough for the first blast to barely miss Shinn. If he was in a suit that wasn't as responsive as the Destiny, then he would be dead.

Shinn then threw the Destiny in the other direction to avoid a second beam blast. He grunted as the huge amount of G-forces that pushed against his body. It has been a long time since he had fought in combat and his body was no longer used to the physical abuse a pilot receives while piloting.

Shinn dodged three more blast the same way. Each was a single shot and each putting a toll on him. Just as Shinn was beginning to get used to the enemies tactics, they all fired their weapons at the same time. Eight blasts came at him simultaneously.

Shinn's eyes grew wide as he saw that he could not avoid these blasts. He had made a rookie mistake. He fell right into the enemies pattern and fell into their trap. And he made another rookie mistake, by being surprised by this attack.

Shinn activated his beam shield, the soldius fulgor within just milliseconds from being impacted. The beam blasts erupted right in front of him, pushing the Destiny back. Shinn grinded his teeth as the G-forces from the blast shook his suit with much more force than the engines could.

Shinn's psyscy was wrecked. He was making mistakes that a first year rookie would make. He was not piloting like a seasoned vet or as a Faith member. Again he relied on the advancements of the Destiny. The suit was the only reason he was alive. The solidus fulgor beam shields were not standard equipment for any mobile suits. Only a handful possessed them, as they were deemed too expensive to produce for production mobile suits. His were even upgraded within the years and could with stand a vastly larger amount of fire power than before. Unfortunately after the shields were hit, there was a brief flicker in the shields power supply.

A beam shield drew its power from the reactor on board the suit. However constant power being applied from the reactor is not possible or practical due to the large amount of heat generated by the electrical power used to run the shields. Each beam shield would have its own flash charge battery that stored energy from the reactor and used for the shields. When they flicker, that meant all the power in the batteries was drained in one hit. The reactor nearly instantly recharged the battery (this is the resulting flicker), but the fact that the Destiny's beam shields could be taken out like that was a big problem for Shinn. It meant his opponent's weaponry was very powerful.

His proximity alarm went off and he found one of the Virgo's right in front of him, drawing its beam saber. Quickly Shinn drew his and countered a block from the suit. Shinn withdrew the block and reversed.

The Virgo moved closer attacking him again. This time Shinn was able to move far enough away for the Virgo to swing and miss. Shinn then swung his beam saber right at the mid section of the suit. The Virgo replied by blocking Shinn's attack.

Shinn, trying not to lose his temper, took the lead and attacked the suit first this time. The Virgo mirrored Shinn's earlier move and flew backwards away from the saber to avoid it. Shinn without a moment of thought aimed and fired his beam rifles at the suit.

The beam weapon erupted in a mighty white and pink blast. It was near point blank range. Surely nothing could survive that Shinn thought. But he was wrong.

After the blast subsided the Virgo was visible fully intact and holding its arms in a blocking pose. It was at this time that Shinn noticed a number of small rotating discs surrounding the suit. All of the disks were emitting a type of beam shield. Shinn grunted as he realized that these were why the Virgo's survived his earlier attack.

A beam blast shot right past Shinn's shoulder and at the Virgo. The Virgo responded by blocking the attack with its beam shields.

"Shinn!" It was Duo Maxwell yelling over the radio. Duo in his Ginn flew right by Shinn while firing his beam rifle. As Duo flew by, he strafed against the Virgo. Finding a new target, the Virgo responded by turning and blocking Duo's attack. This left the side of the Virgo open to Shinn.

"Now Shinn! Attack it now!" Duo yelled.

Shinn complied and thrust forward with his beam saber in a horizontal slicing motion. He felt a small bit of satisfaction as the enemy doll split into to half's before igniting in a ball of flames.

"Shinn move!" Duo was again yelling at Shinn.

Shinn looked in Duo's direction to see that Duo was engaged by two enemy suits. Shinn floored the destiny in reverse and twisted the mid frame to allow himself to avoid another beam saber swipe. Just like Duo, he was being double teamed.

Shinn blocked a beam blast with his beam shield as he used his other arm to operate a beam saber, while charging another doll.

Beam blasts from Duo's mobile suit distracted the enemy doll and Shinn was able to slice it in half just like the first one. With Duo's help, Shinn was able to destroy two mobile dolls. That left six more.

"Shinn listen. It's best to double team these dolls. They have a hard time focusing on more than one opponent at a time. Their frame is built with an emphasis on close quarter combat. If you can get past their shields, then it's easy to take them out at range."

Shinn was beginning to see what Duo was saying. The enemy doll seemed to lack maneuverability due to the powerful weaponry. It was a very short amount of time, but all the power used to fly the doll would be rerouted to the beam weapon, thus giving Shinn a split second to attack.

Just as Shinn was feeling good about himself, things began to turn against them. As Shinn was repositioning himself to begin an attack gainst another Virgo, he witnessed Duo's Ginn take a hit.

Now it was Duo's turn. The Virgo's were considerably more advanced then the Taurus's he was fighting earlier. The Ginn he was in was completely out matched. His weapon's lacked the power to get past the Virgo's shields on there own, and he wasn't nearly as maneuverable. Duo couldn't doubt that he could take them on at close range, but in this Ginn it was very hard to get in close. While Duo had successfully moved in close enough to strike, and he himself had destroyed one doll leaving only five left, it had cost him.

Alarms blared and screens flickered. Electronic gauge readings all fell and while some went sky high. Duo grunted in pain, as his seat belt tightened to hold him in the pilot's seat. He had been able to twist his suit to avoid the cockpit from being hit, but it was unavoidable. The blast ripped right through his jet packs and proceeded to obliterate one leg of the suit. His maneuverability was really hampered now. The blast hit close enough to his power unit to take out two of his three main batteries. With just one battery he had just barely enough power to move the suit at low speeds. Beam weapons couldn't get enough charge from one battery so he would have to rely on his ballistic weapons.

Duo let out a chuckle to help relieve him of his frustration. "Well, this is getting interesting."

Shinn fired at the Virgo's surrounding Duo, trying to get their attention away from the Ginn.

"Shinn to Musai, Maxwell has been hit! Need retrieval now! Where is Lunamaria!" Shinn yelled.

Meyrin's voice came over the speackers. She sounded worried and distracted. "We are engaged with the enemy ship. We can't launch or mount a retrieval for the Ginn."

Shinn cursed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Musai turn away from his to avoid being hit. But Shinn couldn't focus on them. It seemed as if the Virgo's were constantly trying different tricks to fight him. Now three Virgos came at him while the remaining two went after Maxwell.

"Maxwell, looks like we're on our own." Shinn said.

"A losing battle huh? I'm used to them." Duo said back.

"Can you continue?"

"This suit's not as bad as it looks. I'll be fine."

Shinn knew that was a lie. The Ginn was trashed from just one hit. Production mobile suits never were as strong as the single custom units like his Destiny. One couldn't expect a Ginn to be able to fight as well, especially when damaged as such.

Meyrin came back on the intercom. "There's an incoming shuttle craft heading in your direction."

"A shuttle?" Duo asked. He sounded surprised, but rejuvenated.

Meyrin took a second to reply and when she did she sounded like the breathe was knocked out of her. Shinn could only imagine that the Musia either took a hit or made an emergency maneuver. "It's a civilian shuttle. Bearing is 1223.78. It's making no course corrections. It will pass right through the battle field."

Duo flew away and headed straight for the shuttle. He set his remaining thrusters for the maximum they could at the moment.

"What are you doing Maxwell?" Shinn yelled.

"Just keep them off my back!"

A Virgo came right at the Destiny with its beam saber drawn. As the Virgo's beam saber came down, Shinn swung his saber and deflected it. But the Vigo continued and rammed the Destiny with it's beam shield.

Working fast Shinn was able to pull back and recover, but an alarm began to blare.

As Shinn started to rescan the area with his eyes, a message displayed across his main viewer so the pilot couldn't possibly miss it. 'Critical failure. Reactor Failure.'

This was possibly the most surprising and worst thing that has happened to Shinn today. The Destiny was one of the most advanced mobile suits of the Zaft military and Zaft was known for being among the best when it came to build quality.

A hyper deuterium nuclear reactor such as the one that powered the Destiny could provide 600+ hours of combat flight. Once that was over the deuterium rod which was the size of a pencil would be replaced and the suit could continue as before with another 600+ hours. This gave it a huge amount of combat time, while being easily and quickly serviceable. However, Shinn's problem had nothing to due with the deuterium rod. The coils which are used to convert the heat produced by the reactor into energy snapped. While a freak accident, it is still not unheard of.

The coils were an integrated part of the reactor and could only be service by removal of the reactor. Unlike most of the systems on the Destiny, the reactor was too large to have a back up. This could be viewed as a weakness for a nuclear powered suit. The Destiny had a set of emergency batteries which would provide enough power for the suit to obtain what was called 'limp home mode'. The twin sets were small batteries with the sole purpose of propelling the suit back to the ship it launched from. Never are they to be used for combat and lack the power to operate beam weaponry.

Just like Duo, Shinn has been made almost completely useless in one attack. He didn't have enough power to fight back. He was dead in the water.

Shinn couldn't do anything but watch as the Virgo's advanced on him. He heard a scream over the intercom, Meyrin voice, and looked over at his side moniter to view Duo's Ginn erupt into a ball of flame as it nearly reached the shuttle.

**Well this is the longest chapter yet. Expect many changes to what was before, but this chapter is 100 percent new. Please remember to review.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

This couldn't be happening. Even for a trained vet, he knew there was little to no way to win. He was stuck alone with five enemy mobile suits, and just one of them was challenging enough. But his main problem was the Destiny. Having suffered a reactor failure the Destiny was running off its emergency battery packs. None of which could provide enough power for combat. And finally to top it off, Maxwell had just…

Shinn shook his head. Now was not the time to think about it. He had to get back to the Musai. His survival depended on it.

Shinn thought about his options. The Destiny was in 'limp' mode. He had enough power stored into his beam rifle's reserve battery for one shot, but it would be best for him to reroute that power back to the thrusters. He could fire ballistic guns, so his Vulcan head cannons were his best weapon at the moment. He could only use thrusters up to fifteen percent which was the max that the computer would enable during limp mode. By himself it would be more than enough to get back to the ship, but between him and the Musai were three of the five mobile dolls. And he had two more behind him.

With a wooshing sound, the Destiny's phase shift armor powered down. Now he was venerable to even the weakest of attacks.

A Virgo bared down on him. They must have been able to tell he was having problems since the other four left and headed toward the Musai. Looking past the on coming suit, Shinn could see that the Impulse was finally able to launch. He watched as Lunamaria closed in to engage the four incoming Virgo's.

Shinn about threw up. He couldn't let Luna take them on by herself. He knew the capabilities of the Impulse and he knew how good a pilot Luna was, but he couldn't sit and watch her fight these machines by herself while he sat in the back useless. He slammed his fists. He had been taken out. He couldn't protect her like this.

The single Virgo rammed him with its shoulder. Shinn's seat belts kept him in place, but he momentarily lost control of the wounded Destiny. When he finally leveled it out all Shinn could see was the Virgo's beam sword coming down on him.

And then…

The Virgo split in half. Bits and pieces of fire hot metal flew from the Virgo as it erupted into a massive fireball, right in front of Shinn. Shinn was left by himself. The Virgo was destroyed and he was safe for the moment. His life was saved and he had no idea how.

* * *

Meyrin screamed as she watched Duo's Ginn be destroyed. She cried as her computer's registry listed him as KIA. However she was a soldier, and they were in combat.

Sure, she had just met Duo and has really only spent a little bit of time with him, but she really liked him. Within that little time, she had felt feelings that she hasn't felt in a long time. She felt that she was invincible with him. It was cheesy and cliche and most would say she was utterly stupid. Her sister nearly chewed her out, but Meyrin really like this guy. Even with all his mysteries and the possibility that he was a natural, Meyrin didn't care. This was love at first sight for the girl.

"Meyrin!" the captain yelling finally got the girls attention. "Get focused!"

She quickly whipped the tears from around her eyes. "Yes Sir."

"Now are we in position!"

Meyrin did a quick check over the CIC. "Yes Sir. We are facing away from the Minerva class. Ready to launch the Impulse."

"Then go ahead!"

She did as the captain said and sent the Impulse on its way. She watched four of the mobile dolls leave the damaged Destiny and head toward the Musai. She then watched Lunamaria engage them. Instantly she saw Luna struggle to fight them and two disengaged her and head straight for the Musai.

"Two mobile dolls heading this way!" She relayed to the captain. These suits were close.

The Musai shook violently. A direct hit from the Minerva class had ripped through her main hull.

"Damage report!" The captain command.

Meyrin read the list to the captain. It was a bad hit, but not fatal. Most of the damage occurred at the crew's main quarters. The crew would be fine if they were at their battle stations like they were supposed too. However, it did disrupt power to the main engines. It would take about three minutes for the engineering team to reroute power. It was three minutes they did not have.

The Minerva class realized the damage they just struck to the Musai, and began to move in for the killing blow.

Everyone on the bridge gasped and became still. Right out in front of the bridge, just beyond the glass was one of the enemy suits that had got past the Musai's anti-mobile suit defenses. It raised its beam rifle and took aim for the bridge. Some officers futilely jumped from their stations and ran for the exit of the bridge.

Everything was happening slowly. Meyrin just stayed in her seat and looked on to the enemy suit as it began to fire. And then it erupted. The Virgo was destroyed by some unseen force and the bridge was saved.

"Hello. Anyone there? Did I get the right frequency?" Meyrin turned back to the CIC computer and listened to the incoming radio message. She was in shock, but after the man nearly repeated what he was asking, she realized that it was Duo's voice.

Reaching for her head set as fast as she could she responded. "Duo!"

"Hey my little lady. Sorry to worry you, but I had a package in that shuttle."

Outside of the bridge was now a black mobile suit. It had a large set of bat wings and was painted a pure black that made it almost impossible to see in space. The suit was more stylish than any that Meyrin had ever seen before and it had this menacing glare in its 'eyes'.

"Tell the captain to pull back. I'll take care of the bad guys." Duo said. The mobile suit activated a beam scythe and flew past the bridge.

Meyrin didn't know what to say or think. The crew remained silent as well.

* * *

Lunamaria finally was cleared for launch. Everyone on the ship knew it was dangerous to launch when you were this close in combat. You were a prime target for the enemy and open to attack while leaving. The Musai made an emergency maneuver to put its back to the Minerva class to allow Lunamaria a chance to launch and fight the enemy suits. The Musai did pay a price.

Luna watch through her rear camera as the Musai took a direct hit almost immediately after she launch. She watch the warm blue glow of the engines die down and the Musai drift in space with no power.

The enemy suits came at her and she knew within a second they were much stronger than the dolls from before. Two flew right past her and toward the crippled Musai, while the other two played a game of tag team with her.

Luna pulled the Impulse back while doing a spinning maneuver. He hopes where to group the two enemy dolls together so she could fire back at both of them. But as she finished and took aim with her beam weapons; the enemy suits were gone.

A suit flew right by her. Radar didn't pick it up, and she barely could see it. It was a pure black suit with spikes all over it. If it wasn't for the beam scythe that illuminated the space around it, the suit would be near invisible in outer space.

"Yo pretty lady, hope I didn't worry you." It was Maxwell's voice.

"Maxwell?" Luna called out.

"Yep. The one and only." He said. "I've taken care of the last of the mobile dolls. You go get your man. I'll stop the ship." He was cheerful and almost sounded happy. Maxwell's worry and determination were replaced with the carefree and cheerfulness he had when Luna met him just yesterday.

* * *

"Now this is like it!" Duo exclaimed to himself. It had been a long time. Being on White Base, Duo didn't have a place to hide Deathscythe. Sure he tried and was working on finding a place, but Trowa had such a nice set up and was happy to oblige. It has been well over a year since Duo even set eyes on his suit and he was more than happy that it was with him now. "It's good to be back with you old buddy."

Like the other four suits, the Deathscythe received upgrades upon coming to this world. After months of research, Duo himself chose the technology from this earth to integrate into his suit. Beam weapons from his world were more powerful than those here, so his beam scythe stayed untouched. The engines and power were not.

His former fusion reactor was significantly weaker. It need to be constantly fed fuel to create the monstrous amounts of power a gundam required. So his first upgrade and the most significant was to install a miniature nuclear reactor with an n-jammer canceller. It was among the latest, and to say he got it legally would be the biggest lie in space. All five gundams received this upgrade.

New thruster engine to take advantage of the reactor were installed and the Deathscythe was faster than ever before.

The frame of the Deathscythe was a different story. The frame was rugged and strong. It was an ingenious design whose only flaw was the difficulty it was to operate. But to a skilled pilot like Duo, it just felt better. He wasn't a fan of the padded instruments and climate controlled cockpits of the Ginn he was piloting before. The Deathscythe was meant for war not comfort. In the end, all that mattered was which suit would bring him back in one piece, and Duo would bet on the Deathscythe any day.

He destroyed the two suits circling Shinn first as they were closest to him. The lack of a radar signature from the gundanium armor allowed Duo the ability to do the impossible and sneak up on the mobile dolls. The Deathscythe had minimal armaments as its designer was a specialist in stealth technology. So thus, the Deathscythe was made to be invisible and it truly was.

Duo reassured Shinn and flew off. He shot a quick burst from his thrusters and shut everything down. His beam scythe went out and his thrusters powered down. Duo became black as the space around him. He let the moment he had and the lack of friction in space to guide him toward the Musai. His hyper jammer ECM activated and disrupted nearly all radar or laser signals near him.

He came onto the rearward side of the ship just as a beam blast from the enemy shot right through the Musai. Duo kept his calm as the blast came very near him. But as the beam blast missed him, a Virgo did appear right in front of Duo. It was firing up at the Musai and was using its beam shields to block anti-mobile fire.

Duo activated all everything on the Deathscythe and slit the Virgo in half. He caught the other one out of the corner of his eye. The suit headed toward the top of the ship. Duo followed.

The Virgo took aim at the bridge. Duo hit his suits afterburners and flew right in front of the Virgo's line of fire. He pulled the Deathscythe's scythe back and cut the Virgo in half using an upper cutting motion. Duo spread his bat wings out and protected the bridge from any stray shrapnel from the exploding Virgo.

Duo saw everyone on the bridge. A man Duo could tell was the captain, a couple of officers that he didn't care about, but most importantly he saw Meyrin, and he was happy she was safe.

Thinking quick Duo tuned the Deathscythe to the frequency he remembered his Ginn being programmed with. Being at the combat information center it was Meyrin who realized It was him and answered him directly.

"Hey my little lady. Sorry to worry you, but I had a package in that shuttle." Duo cringed at the sound of his voice. If he had the chance Duo would take that back and rephrase what he said. He had only known the girl for nearly a day. He couldn't call her lady yet.

It didn't look like Meyrin noticed. She seemed too amazed at the moment.

Duo continued on, trying to not let his slip up get to him. "Tell the captain to pull back. I'll take care of the bad guys." He then flew off.

Lunamaria was close. She began fighting the second she exited the Musai. Duo didn't even activate stealth mode.

Luna did a reverse thrust with a spin. She was quiet good as Duo could tell she accomplished what she wanted. Both enemy suits fell for it, and if she were given the chance, then she could have rained down fire on those two enemy dolls. But Duo wasn't about to give her that. He just got his Deathscythe back. The reactor hadn't even warmed up fully yet. Besides, what she gave him were two enemy suits lined up perfectly for a strike against them. Anyway, it was unlikely that her beam weapons could get past their beam shields.

Duo laughed as he hit his thrusters on full power. He swung once and destroyed both enemy Virgos with one long swipe of his beam scythe. He moved back to be sure that if Lunamaria did fire blindly after she came out of her spin, he wouldn't be hit. Luckily she didn't. She was just as amazed that he was alive as everyone else. He told her to get Shinn and Duo headed for the enemy ship.

Because of the ships actions, Duo took it that they didn't have anymore dolls or suits on board. The Minerva class began firing at Duo, but they were also retreating.

It is considered absurd for a single mobile suit to take on a dreadnaught. Only the most skilled pilots were capable of doing it. Duo knew he was able to, but a captain usually wouldn't retreat just because of one suit. Zaft would consider it cowardly and shameful. But Duo wasn't a regular mobile suit pilot and his suit was defiantly not a regular suit.

Duo had to give the man credit. He knew when to quite. His only bad luck was the Deathscythe's timing. Duo felt bad for sure, but as the saying goes, 'those that lay eyes on a gundam shall not live to tell about it'.

He flew in close. "You know who I am?" He yelled at the top of his lungs. He dodged the anti-mobile fire from the ship and center the Deathscythe right over the Minerva classes main engines.

"I'm the god of death!" Duo brought his beam scythe down.

The Minerva class erupted in two as Duo severed the anti-matter tanks. The ship exploded all around him. He shut his main viewer off as he did not wish to see the destruction he just caused.

* * *

"Oh really?" Lacus asked enthusiastically. It took nearly all her might to maintain a cheerful facade in front of her daughter. However she had to admit that even amongst this cold feeling of dread on the ship, what her daughter just told her was quiet funny. It was a good escape.

"You're not mad Mommy?" Kelly asked.

"No honey. You've been such a good girl lately that I'm not mad." Lacus moved down and hugged her daughter a little harder than usual. "And you know what?"

"What Mommy?"

"I didn't like that sofa either." Lacus smiled and the two girls started to laugh.

A ping echoed throughout the room. It was the ships equivalent of a door bell. Lacus motioned for the door to open and Shiho walked in.

"Mrs. Yamato sorry to bother you." Shiho said.

"Not at all." Lacus moved away from Kelly as Kelly began to scribble on a piece of paper with a crayon. "Is there a problem?"

"We received a transmission from the Musai. They said that they were under attack, but they have taken care of it. They'll probably be a little late." The Musai, commanded by Shinn, was also set to rendezvous with the Eternal along with the Tsukumiya, commanded by Athrun.

"They were attacked?"

"Yes Maim. And it's as you suspected."

Lacus tried to be as quiet as she could so her daughter wouldn't notice. "The attacking ship was from Zaft wasn't it?"

"Yes Maim. According to the captain of the Musai, it was an unregistered Zaft vessel equipped with mobile dolls. A Minerva class."

Lacus was expecting the Eternal to be attacked. She would be naive to think that there were at least one Zaft ship trailing them from a distance out of their radar range. But she wouldn't have expected the Musai to be attacked. The Musai was a veteran ship that survived two wars and achieved some rather high decorations for bravery. The ship was well respected amongst the Zaft Navy. But there was nothing special about the ship. The only reason she could come up with was it's commander is Shinn Asuka, and he was on that list. Even still, the ship is crewed by members of Zaft.

"Did you say Mobile dolls? Like the ones from the White Base report?" Lacus knew about the attack on White Base from their first communication with the Musai and Tsukumiya. Shinn Asuka personally told her.

"Yes and no Maim. According to Shinn, the suits were mobile dolls, but a more powerful version. According to him, they have a man who has fought against them before, and Shinn said he would tell us everything when the Musai gets here."

"So we are still waiting for answers."

"For the moment."

Lacus sighed and stared at her daughter. Kelly looked up and smiled as bright as she could and lifted up the paper to show Lacus what she drew. Lacus returned the smile and continued talking to Shiho. "Any contact with Orb or Athrun?"

"We have lost contact with both for some time now. The situation with Athrun is unknown, but Orb may be experiencing an attack. Probably from the same people who attacked White Base."

* * *

Kira finished up on the adjustments for the Freedom. He increased power to the beam shields and beam sabers as well as giving a larger ration to the phase shift armor. The Freedom when activated would have an even brighter white appearance when the phase shift is activated, but Kira was hoping the increase in defense could counter act the powerful beam rifles the mobile dolls he fought had. This did bring the ration of power to the thrusters down. You had to give something to get something else.

Midway through the adjusting he was informed about the attack on the Musai, but was relieved to hear they only obtained minimal casualties and would just be a little late. It took nearly four hours to do the adjustments, and Kira was expecting to meet up with the ship at any moment,

Kira walked down the catwalk while staring at the new mobile suit. The suit was extraordinary. The painted shades of green all messed together to provide a distortion effect on the human eye. An optical illusion they would say. Old school camouflage others would say. To Kira the whole look of the suit and the design meant that it was built for more than just battles. It had a dragon theme and it looked very menacing.

It was an inside joke that Kira has never quiet got within the engineering community to name their custom mobile suits a gundam. They give them weird and absurd acronyms to call them that, but very few pilots would get the joke or let alone call their suit a gundam. It was just weird and Kira thought it was just a crazy made up again word. However this suits pilot, Wufei, either referred to this suit as a gundam, or by the suits name, Nataku.

It was Commander Waltfield who came to Kira side. "What you thinking about kid?"

Kira eyed the elderly gentleman. Age seemed to be finally catching up with the desert tiger. "What you want to know about. The suit or the pilot?"

Waltfield chuckled. "Let's start with the suit."

"It's like nothing I have ever seen before. The armor is not phase shift, but it's stronger."

"It does have a weird texture to it. Looks kind of like rock or granite."

"It seems to be very strong, but Wufei won't let us near it."

"He hasn't told you anything about it?"

It was Kira's turn to chuckle. "Tell you the truth. I think he will detonate it if we even lay a finger on it."

"So the pilot's the paranoid type?"

"Very. He's acting like we are enemies as well."

"He doesn't seem to have a high regard for us coordinators. I would have to agree with Joule on that."

Kira now laughed. "I guess. I asked him why he helped us. He said his enemy was Romafellar, and that the best way to fight was to fight alongside us."

"Well the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"It's like he is taking that literally." Kira turned around and leaned on the hand rail. "I think he may have been a soldier for a very long time and he seems to hold a grudge against Romafellar."

"Is it okay for him to be running around the ship then?"

"It's like you said. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I really don't think we have anything to worry from him. Besides, he is a very good pilot and I very well think it would be a very bad decision to do anything that would destroy the little relationship we have now. And, I think he knows more than he has told us."

Right before Waltfeld was going to respond a ping was heard over the loud speaker and Shiho Hanafuease spoke. "All hands, we are about to meat up with the Musai. All bridge officer's to the bridge and everyone to your stations."

"Well then kid, shall we head up?" Walfelt asked.

Kira nodded and left for the bridge.

**Next week attack on Orb. Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ch. 6**

Cagalli barely refrained from pulling all her hair out. She was on the verge of tears. She stayed in Onogoro trying to find a diplomatic solution, but it was proving to be near impossible. Whoever attacked them would not reply to any attempt at contact, leaving the blonde and her country in the dark.

It was getting late, and she needed to get some rest. She had not slept in two days, ever since White Base was lost. She was currently alone in her office allowing herself just a little time away from the committee.

Cagalli did not have any kids. Her niece was enough for her. Unlike Lacus, Cagalli was a permanent member of the committee, and did not have the luxury of giving up her term within four years. Often she felt that she had no time for a family, due to her responsibilities. This however, has not stopped her from having a romantic relationship with the Zaft general Athrun Zala.

Cagalli began gathering her things, and prepared to head back out into the lions pit as she jokingly calls the counsel room. Stroking her finger, she felt the silver ring. She may not be married, but she was engaged and as far as she is concerned, that is close enough.

The door to her room burst open, and a middle aged woman with black hair stopped before Cagalli. Not even giving a salute the girl spoke, "We need to go!"

Cagalli had got to know the girl very well over the years. Her husband was a valuable member of the committee and shared many of the same views as her. He was one of Cagalli's greatest ally's and the two often supported each other against the rest of the council. "Could you not knock, Noin?"

"Sorry ma'am." She panted heavily, "But we're under attack."

* * *

Yzak lay in his bed while the darkness surrounded him. Alone, he had nobody to accompany him in the dark room.

Dearka was off running around the ship. Dearka's suit was still in good shape, it just needed a reequipping. Yzak's on the other hand needed a few days worth of repairs. The Eternal didn't have enough replacement parts at the moment so they were forced to salvage the damaged parts. This made repairs long and difficult. Ultimately, Yzak would be forced to remain on the ship during the battles.

Yzak did not have a close relationship with any members of the Yamato family. In the time of his service as one of Lacus Yamato's leading generals, he has become to trust the woman. He didn't necessarily agree with all her views, but the Plants did strive while she was chairwoman. So would he would follow her to his death? Maybe. She had done a lot of good for the Plants. But what about her husband?

Kira, was not an enemy. He was greater then an ally, maybe even a friend, but neither of them were close. Yzak did work nearly side by side with Yamato. So, maybe Kira Yamato is a friend, but a friend that is barely more then an acquaintance. They did try to kill each other many times before after all. Even though Kira Yamato was a higher rank than Yzak, he never used it against him. The two had a great respect for each other, and Yzak wasn't going to wreck that.

Shiho refused to share a room with him. She was one of those goody too shoes. Yzak liked the girl, maybe he loved her, but their forming of a relationship was to slow. They had been together for years, but have barely made any progress. The woman mind was just too complex for Yzak to figure out.

So now he lay on his cold bed all alone. It was cold because he likes it that way.

In his current sleepless existence, yesterdays events unfolded. Hard for him to decipher what exactly happened. Like a rubrics cube. Yzak may be a coordinator, but he still could never figure one of those out.

From the attack on the Yamato house to the battle in space, it all did not make sense to him. Why was Zaft attacking their former leader? She was one of the most loved leaders the Plants have had. What was Zaft planning? There was no indication of any this. No hints or signs of the attack. It was just by dumb luck and chance that Yzak learned of the assassination attempt and got the family out.

But all his thoughts came to a climax with the natural Chinese boy. A natural boy that had been able to easily destroy those seemingly invincible enemy suits with ease. A natural who had been able to best not just him, but also Yamato. A natural who had put his own Zaku in the repair shop for the next few days. A natural Chinese boy that railed up all the anger and hatred that Yzak had in his entire body.

Apparently the natural, whose name was in fact Wufie, seemed to have a great deal of knowledge of the enemy. When asked how he was able to kill them so easily, Wufie just laughed, saying there is 'no thrill in the death of a machine'. It was then that he told everyone on the ship, that their new enemy was a computer controlled suit. Something Yzak knew Zaft was working on for years, but to his knowledge the technology was still far away.

It is a little uneasy with Wufei on board. Yamato decided it was better to bring him aboard, claiming it was better to not have him as an enemy. Yzak, forcible going against his ego, had to agree. This Wufie did just best the best in Zaft.

The green suit was something to marvel at. Wufie would let nobody do anything to his suit but look at it, and he was still pretty uneasy about that. It wasn't phase shift armor. It stayed green the whole time, but the metal had a hard texture to it. Almost like a rock. When asked about the armor Wufei laughed again and claimed, "Thats what makes it a Gundam." And he left it at that.

A low pitched beeping noise came from the console on the wall, next to Yzak's head. Grunting he moved himself up and pressed the intercom button. "What?" he asked exhaustedly.

"Yzak get up here." It was Dearka.

"Where?"

"To the bridge."

"Why?"

"We are about to meet with the Musai."

Yzak grunted as he sat up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes and let out a yawn. "I'll be right there."

He then got up and dressed himself.

Kira sat in a comfortable chair on the bridge. In his arms he cradled his resting wife. Captain Waltfeld sat in the captain's chair and awaited the next bit of news. The Eternal was able to escape relatively unharmed. And aside from the damage done to Yzak's suit, they were at full fighting capacity.

Every one who should be on the bridge was there with a few exceptions. Dearka was late in telling Yzak, so Yzak was on his way. And Shiho, who was happy to comply with the request of both Kira and Lacus, was baby sitting Kelly. Dearka was the one operating the CIC.

And lastly, in the back corner, hovering off the floor in a sleeping form was Wufie. He only gave them that. No one knew his last name. Apparently Yzak had a run in with him before, and learned this Wufie was a natural, but that was it. Both Yzak and Wufie would not talk about what happened to them on the beach.

The Eternal was sitting at the rendezvous point. She was to meet two vessels, both Zaft ships. One, the Musai was under the command of Shinn Asuka and the other was the Tsukumiya under the command of Athun Zala. The Musai was late due to a battle they engaged in, while all communication with the Tsukumiya has been lost for hours.

Though times were bad Kira was looking forward to this little reunion. He hadn't seen Asuka in a while and was wondering how he and Lunamaria were doing.

"Approaching vessel of the port bow." Dearka said calmly. "It's the Musai."

* * *

"What happened?" Cagalli screamed as they finally made it to the hidden shelters elevator. Taking it down, they would have to pass through a mobile suit hanger and take a second elevator to the well protected battle command center.

Noin leaned against the rail on the elevator to catch her breath. "Our section one force was completely obliterated. We are also receiving signals that enemy mobile suit carriers have entered the atmosphere and their trajectory is straight for Orb."

Cagalli was near exhaustion and had a head ache. "Evacuate the people. That's the top priority."

"We are. The citizens are leaving as we speak, and the army is deployed. Right now, everyone is doing what they are supposed to."

The elevator came to a stop and the two women headed across the hanger to the second elevator. Out of the corner of her eye, Cagalli caught a glimpse of a girl by the name of Kia.

Kia was the forth member of the M1 Astray unit that fought in space during the first bloody valentine war, but due to illness, had to sit out. She did perform bravely when Zaft attacked during the second war, and earned lieutenant. She also grew up with Cagalli. They had not been close in years, but they were friends.

However there was no time to talk. Cagalli quickly hurried to the elevator.

* * *

Kia maneuvered her suit out into the green fields. She was an ace mobile suit pilot, but one could not tell from her upbeat nature and the way she carried herself. She was always positive.

Well, not always positive for right now she was scared. She was frightened. She as about to pee her pants, because the sky was turned black as the enemy suits began to rain down upon them.

Then the sky was filled with light as the weapons from both sides began firing. Spurting out bullets, trying to fill the sky to were there was no hole between rounds that an enemy could hide in. Some bullets flew to the sky, tearing through the air, while others, those from the enemies, came down with greater force due to gravity on their side.

This was not an attack, it was an invasion.

And as Kia assumed, the anti air guns failed and the enemy came in close range. That was her cue. She jumped out from behind the building she was using for cover, firing her rifle at the nearest enemy she could see.

And she missed.

The enemy suit did a 180 degree spin, dodging her attack, while coming to face her and opened fire.

Complete surprise over came her. Her reaction time was too slow and bullets ripped into her suit, causing massive damage, but she was able to get to cover again.

The M1 Astray was never known for its reliability. Sure it was strong, but just not well built. The Astray's suffered from many mechanical problems that came with first generation mobile suits. Kia's was a third generation Astray, a M1 AC, an updated and improved model, but it still has issues. One reasons for the Astray's unsurpassed toughness in a production suit was that the Astray utilized a hydraulic system to move its limbs and components. This is a stark contrast to the Zaft and earth alliance mobile suits that used electric motors. The hydraulic system would provide greater physical strength to the mobile suit, but could fail rather easily. If a hydraulic tank or line were struck than the fluid would leak and eventually the suit wouldn't be able to move. The suits do have an intricate protection system for the hydraulics, but these flaws are why both Zaft and the former Earth Alliance use more reliable, but weaker electric motors. Her model did have many quality improvements, but it still maintained many mechanical design flaws that could really only be rectified with the creation of a completely new suit.

But the Astray was known for being tough as an ox. The armor was tree times as strong as the armor on the base Zaku unit's. The Astray was more adaptable, it's capabilities were higher than the Zaku's or Dinns. But they were expensive. Zaft could produce twenty Zaku's to one Astray.

But that did not account for this enemy. There was hundreds of them, and all of them were better then the Astrays. And they were ruthless.

Kia could hear the hovering propulsion engine's of the enemy, making its way to her position. Making a quick weapon's check, she realized all thrusters were out and coolant was leaking, meaning she did not have long till her suit over heated and shut down. Also computer wires and sensors were out, forcing parts of the suit, mainly the arms, to function awkwardly, causing weapons to be difficult to use.

Ditching the rifle she armed herself with her duel beam sabers, hoping she could get the enemy in close range combat, before she ran out of power, which she was loosing fast from a mixture of an acid leak and the malfunctioning cooling system. The batteries for the suit were highly developed lithium acid batteries. They ran the prime mover of the suit and its electrical system. The six 2 million volt batteries where very sensitive to heat and the hotter it got the less charge they could maintain. In outer space this wouldn't be a problem as the cold from space could cool the batteries, but on earth a coolant system would have to be in place. While all kinds of alarms were blaring in the cockpit, the gauge she had to watch the most was the heat and pressure gauge, because if when that goes red, it could ignite the jet fuel used for the thrusters and the suit would explode. The Astray unlike Zaft mobile suits, used an electrical system to power the hydraulics for the suits movements, but still required jet fuel to operate the thrusters and fly. This allowed all battery power to operate the suit since Orb's battery technology was not as advanced as Zafts.

But to add insult to injury, the batteries themselves could rupture and explode if the pressure and heat were high enough. The lithium acid was very flammable.

The suit came from the side of the building, and she swung at it as she received even more damage from the enemy's rifle. Her suit was nearing its end faster and faster. She needed to make her next few movements count.

She was in the middle of the shopping district, which she picked due to the cover it provided, but it also made it hard to use a rifle in the streets. It was like the street was made for close range combat. And the narrow streets gave the black suit an even harder time to maneuver.

She lunged for the suit in a downward slicing motion.

The enemy countered, shifting the gun to its left hand while pulling out a beam saber in its right. Using the saber it blocked her attack and moved backward firing its rifle again.

She moved her suit forward as fast as the damaged suit could move. The street erupted as mortar rounds filled it, hitting everything but the Astray as Kia moved erratically.

She slashed the suit again, only to be blocked. The suit followed the same tactic of blocking and falling back, but this time Kia swung the other saber, taking out the enemy suit's legs.

The legs are literally a big part of a mobile suit. While on earth, due to the gravity, losing the legs would cause a malfunction in the gyro balancer. The gyro balancer effected all functions of a suit, from movement, to targeting, to just standing still. A gyro balancer kept let all of the balancing pinions know which way up and down was. While not needed on a tradition aircraft or military ground based vehicle, the gyro balancer was a key and integral component of a mobile suit. Without a gyro balancer a mobile suit would not be able to walk or move. It was the brains for the computer that kept the suit balanced.

With the loss of the legs, a gyro balancer would have to reset to adjust for the lack of half its weight and change in the center mass. Resetting only takes a moment, but it is very difficult to reset it while in combat, thus leaving the pilot to use his or her own piloting skills at adjusting to the situation. Of course this is not a factor in space where the suit is weightless. And a mobile doll didn't have a pilot skill to compensate. The computer would just have to wait for the balancer to reset.

The enemy suit came crashing down in the streets, ramming itself right into an outlet mall. Using what she had left, Kia encountered the dazed suit, stabbing her beam saber into where she thought the cockpit was.

She screamed from a mixture of frustration, fear, and exhaustion as the heat from her beam saber ignited the fluids in the enemy suit and erupted it into a ball of flames.

She sat panting in her cockpit as it blared 'WARNING' and red flashing lights. As soon as she could realize her camera's went blank and her suit was thrown to its side.

A second enemy suit, this time from the air plummeted it's armor piercing rounds into her Astray, taking out it's main camera's, dismembering it's left arm, and disconnecting it's left thigh from it's mechanical hips.

Kia grumbled from the pain as she was thrown to her side. The secondary cameras that still worked came to life and gave her a view of her killer.

Luckily as her suit fell down, it fell into a position that gave a moment of cover from her adversary, allowing her time to 'recover'.

Ignoring all the warning's lights, the 'red' heat gage, and all the glass monitors that were cracking as she moved, she readied her suit to do battle. She moved it to a sitting position behind the building, hoping to ambush this enemy suit as she did the last one. She focused herself on the incoming enemy, as she tried to not pay attention to the Godzilla like sounds coming from metal mechanical parts grinding against metal.

But this enemy suit knew what she was doing. It flew by the building, dodging Kia's small attack and countering with its own beam saber, taking the only other upper limb her suit had.

Her suit fell to its back off balance. Staring at the enemy suit approaching, she hurriedly moved her hands to disconnect her set belt and escape the crippled suit. But she knew it was in vain. It was near impossible for her to not die in this situation.

But her death did not come. The enemy suit's main lens which was in place of a normal suit's eyes flashed. The suit turned to it's left as if it was surprised, and the suit exploded in a mighty explosion.

Kia exited her suit to the intense feeling of heat and burning hot ash scattering over the ground. She stumbled out of her Astray while looking at her newest savior.

Standing where the enemy suit once stood, was a pure white and navy blue mobile suit. It was a design she had never seen before. It looked as if it was built using a combination of more complex, and simple machinery. In its hand was a green beam saber, on its other hand was a large whip painted to match the suit, and on the back was a massive beam cannon.

The suit did not stay long. It turned to her as if to make quick confirmation that she was alive, then it flew off and engaged another enemy in the distance, easily destroying it.

Kia moved away from her suit. Deep in her training she knew she had to get away from it. But as she ran she watched the white suit dominate the battle ground.

She was thrown to the ground as another explosion erupted. This time from her crippled Astray which finally gave its life away. There was one explosion, which Kia recognized coming from the fuel tanks. The single explosion provided enough force and even more heat to ignite the pressurized batteries, creating a second and even more powerful explosion the tore the Astray into millions of little pieces.

Getting up, her body hurt, her head was bleeding, her chest stung, and all that was on her mind was the mystery suit. She was lucky to even be alive. But she knew what she had to do. Kia made her way to the nearest mobile suit bay, hoping to find another Astray before they were all gone.

* * *

Cagalli finally roamed into the command center. Inside the rest of her cabinet was already waiting for her. Her generals also were there giving off orders. However one of her generals was missing.

A few of the men walked to Cagalli, giving their regards for her safety, while most of them concentrated on the on going battle.

"Whose white suit is that?" One of the men asked.

As Cagalli sat down Noin moved ahead and answered the man's question. "Don't shot it down. It's on our side." She moved to an open computer station and brought up a visual feed with the pilot.

A man with long female-ish white hair came up on the monitor. "General Peacecraft!" The generals in the command center identified him. Cagalli herself was also surprised that he was out fighting.

The man, Peacecraft, gave them momentary recognition, but kept most if not all his attention to piloting his suit.

* * *

Duo, at the request of Shinn, went to meet the people on the Eternal. He did not want to go as he hated situations like this, but Meyrin did accompany him, so it wasn't that bad.

He was about to meet Chairwoman Yamato and her family, which was a little exciting. He got used to knowing famous people. It is good to finally meet her.

He roamed the halls with Shinn in the lead with Luna right to Shinn's side. Duo was behind strolling next to Meyrin. The rest of the team that came aboard the Eternal was left in a rest area while the four made contact with the captain.

Walking down the halls Duo had memories of the Peacemillion, and later the second vessel of that name. He couldn't help but compare the two. The Peacemillion was without a doubt a larger vessel, with larger halls and bigger rooms, but the Eternal look more 'homely'. It looked like the vessel meant something to the people who manned it. She was cleaner and just nicer. Like the ship was treated as a prized hot rod or classic vehicle.

A slight brush was felt against the top of his hand. Looking down for the source of contact, he realized that Meyrin was much closer then she was a moment ago. She walked staring straight forward, with her hand that was closest to Duo hanging as if to get his attention. Her other hand was near her mouth as she chewed on the tips of her finger nails.

Duo had to admit he was very attracted to her, and she looked really cute in this pose. Thoughts of what happened between him and Hilde consumed his mind. Grunting from the painful memories (lets just say he is happy he will never see her again) and he right then and there committed himself to not do the same thing to Meyrin.

Slowly reaching out, making sure nobody was looking, he lightly grasped her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers, which she great fully did back to him. She stopped staring straight and looked into his eyes. Smiling herself she turned her head back forward blushing.

It wasn't long until they were on the bridge. Once on, the lower rank member's saluted, which Duo felt was odd since nobody on this vessel, or in the Clyne Faction, had any since of rank. Shinn, Luna, and Meyrin all returned the salute. After a moment of figuring out what was going on, Duo finally saluted back.

Duo who usually liked being the center of attention felt awkward having everyone stare at him holding Meyrin's hand.

"It's good to see you three again." A woman with flowing pink hair, carrying a near identical looking child stepped forward and addressed the three accompanying Duo. Duo knew her very well from the media and his little side research; Mrs. Yamato.

It was at this time that Meyrin let go of his hand and made her way to the former chairwoman. Duo was a little disappointed, but seeing Meyrin's eyes gleamed at the sight of the little Yamato, was okay for him.

"Meyrin!" The young girl screamed happily as red hair met pink. After a brief moment of chit chat, Kelly was handed away from Lacus and into Meyrin's arms. Lacus husband who was by her the whole time went forward and shook the hands of Shinn and Luna.

Duo felt like an outcast. He was just abandoned by the three people who knew him. Shinn and Luna were talking to Mister Yamato, and Meyrin was holding the young girl while talking to Mrs. Yamato and some black haired girl.

So he just stood in the back, sticking one of his famous I'm bored posses, while blowing the hair out away from under his hat.

"And this is Duo." It was Meyrin's voice.

Duo opened his eyes to come face to face with purple eyes and pink hair. The little girl giggled as well as Meyrin who was holding her. She then thrust her hand forward. "I'm Kelly."

Duo gently took her hand and got on his knees, closing his eyes, and bowed straight down. "It's my honor to meet you my Lady."

He heard giggling and laughter. He opened his eyes and stood up to see the little girl giggling and the three grownup women trying not to. Whither they were trying to hold back laughing to him or not, he did make Kelly happy, and that was what he was going for.

The mother of the girl walked forward and shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Duo. I'm Lacus Yamato. Don't think that your stunt you just pulled with my daughter will work with me. Not while my husband is watching at least."

Duo partly laughed. "Don't worry about me. I know were to draw the line." Duo could have sworn he heard a sarcastic _'yeah right' _from a very familiar voice behind him, but he let it go.

"So Duo." It was Lacus, "Can you tell us anything about your self?"

Meyrin spoke for him, "Duo's a mobile suit pilot. A very good pilot." She seemed...proud.

"Oh, really?"

Kira came up to meet him. They shook hands. "Nice to meet you. Were you from Duo?"

Duo just smiled. He decided silence was the best answer. He just looked at Meyrin, hoping she would help him out of this.

"He won't tell us." It was Shinn, his savior, "All he'll say is that he is a natural, but I have never seen a natural pilot like him."

A sound of liquid being forcefully spite out of one's mouth was heard. Everyone turned their attention to the white haired young man (Yzak). "Another one!" He screamed. Maybe Shinn was not Duo's savior.

Duo cocked his head like a confused dog. "Another one?" He looked around the room for answers. It was Kira who pointed to the other corner of the room. Which Duo followed.

"Wufie! What you doing here?" Duo said heading forward to his old war buddy.

Wufie was still floating in the air, in a meditative stance. "You are still careless. You should have noticed me the minute you got in here. Did they not teach you anything?"

Duo sighed; this was about the friendliest greeting he was going to get from the Chinese man. "Well excuse me for not practicing those skills in five years."

"You should always be conscious of your surroundings."

"Well I'm sorry for being rusty." Duo threw his hands up into the air, "And here, I was excited to see you."

Wufie just let out an "hmph" and went back to meditating.

Everyone on the bridge was at first stunned that they knew each other, but Shinn spoke first. "So Maxwell, is he another one of the five?"

Wufie then screamed at Duo, "YOU TOLD HIM ABOUT US?"

Yzak came forward. "Wait, wait, wait. There are five of you guys?"

"Five in our little group, but I know many better pilots then me."

Everyone just watched as Yzak's temper flared. No one dared to stop him at the moment. "How on earth is it possible for a natural to be better then a coordinator?"

A couple people in the group yelled out his name, ashamed of the comment he just made.

"Well, I have been piloting my whole life, practically since I was born." Duo said.

Immediately he screamed out in pain as Wufie hit him hard on the head.

Lacus was the next to talk. "Wait, since you were born? That doesn't make since. Mobile suits have only been around for thirteen years. You possibly could not have piloted one at such a young age."

Duo stayed silent, his eyes nearly jumped out of his head. He just made a big mistake.

"Idiot!" Wufie yelled, and this time, his punch sent Duo straight to the ground.

Duo got up quickly, screaming from his throbbing head. "What was that for!"

"You need to learn to shut your mouth."

"Well excuse me."

The whole crew was watching the two bicker at each other. It wasn't too different from when Yzak would get into it with Athrun.

Kira who had moved closer to his wife, just in case something crazy happened spoke gently into her ear. "Should we stop them?"

Lacus turned to look at him, with an expression that spoke to Kira. 'Yes, but I'm not going to do it.'

And then, just as if it was intended to happen all along, the CIC made a contact beep. Someone was hailing the ship wanting to talk.

Shiho left to her counsel and quickly began reviewing it. "Incoming mobile suit fleet."

Everyone's attention was now on her. Even Duo and Wufie stopped fighting to see what she would say.

"Checking makes and models of the suits, four Ginns, three Zakus and one custom model." The room was filled with suspense. "I got a positive ID on the lead suit." She paused, and first double checked her readings. Finally she spoke up, addressing the crew, "It's the Justice."

* * *

Zechs flew through the streets, thankful that the Tallgeese III was still in just as good shape as it was the first day that he operated it. He was comfortable with the Tallgeese. He piloted better suits (Zero and Epyon), but the Tallgeese just suited him. It was his trademark suit. He was born to pilot this suit.

Not that he was not grateful that the Tallgeese III incorporated some of the designs of the two more powerful suits. The whip, to allow him to fight as he did in Epyon, and the beam cannon that perform similarly to the Zero's Buster Rifle. The Tallgeese was just not as maneuverable as the two suits, nor as quick and more bulky. But as Zechs felt, it was up to the pilot to overcome this.

Zechs. It was the name he decided to keep. Within the land of Orb, he was legally named Milliardo Peacecraft, but he was never deserving of that name. He long lost the right to it. Even so, everyone referred to him as Zechs. If it was up to him, he would have also kept the name Marquis, but his wife insisted he go with Peacecraft, as a way of leaving the past behind.

It wasn't long after their reunion, that he married Lucresia. It was quiet. Not even a wedding. Just an exchange of their vows, and the signing a few documents. Document's they had to fill a second time once they arrived in Orb. Noin, was the name he continued to call her, and a name he will always call her. She preferred it. She viewed at it as a pet name.

It was a long story that not even Zechs officially understood that got him into the cabinet at Orb. His papers marked him as Scandinavian. He was not an Orb citizen by birth, which meant he was eligible for every office but the leading representative. Besides, that was Cagalli's job and would continue down her family, just like the royal family in old England.

Fighting these mobile dolls were a flash back to the past. Their moves and counter's have not been changed. In fact, very few mechanical upgrades were done if any. Destroying mobile dolls had no guilt or weight of battle afterwards.

Zechs really had never felt pain for killing some one. It's not that he was without a conscious, but the first time he had so much rage and anger built up that he was happy to have that person die by his hands. By the time he should be thinking about the deaths he had caused, he was numb to it. Only once did he fight to not kill and that was during the L3 X-18999 incident. But Zechs was never one for massacre. He would never allow that. He would only kill in battle, for he viewed it as honorable.

To Zechs, war was I kill you or you kill me. It was as simple as that. When you are fighting humans mind you. But mobile dolls...

It was more of a test. He was seeing how well his suit performed and how well he could execute attacks. They are great practice.

There was one thing that only the people closet's to him could tell. Among those people were his wife, and the deceased Treize. But if they could see him at the moment, they would say he was frustrated, but only they could tell one thing. He was having fun.

Which he should not be. Zechs knew war, and he knew the enemy. He knew their war. Zechs knew that this war was going to be much worse then the previous two this world had fought in. He knew many innocent people will die.

And Zechs also knew that Orb was gone. The enemy was coming to fast and in to large a number. Over half of Orb's mobile suit division had been destroyed and all the remaining suits had been deployed. Things were different than from the first bloody valentine war. Onogoro wouldn't survive being taken over this time, and Zechs really doubted the enemy was up to nothing other than a massacre.

He saved as many civilians as he could. But his enemy was merciless. Zechs knew the enemies tactics. They were sent to destroy all. To kill everyone, from soldiers to civilians.

Zechs moved in and destroyed six dolls in a row. He hated how the Orb forces would look in awe at how he piloted and fought. They should be focusing on the attack and not him.

Looking at the damage, the main city was still standing, but badly damaged. Onogoro itself took up much of the island and housed over half of the countries population. Orb was a small Island country. Very advanced, but not much to protect, which was good and bad. Orb could easily be overwhelmed like it is now.

Zechs aimed his beam rifle up into the sky, targeting a doll carrier with four additional doll carriers circled around it. Before they were able to jettison the dolls, Zechs fired, destroying the carrier in seconds. The explosion from the blast consumed the four additional carriers, taking them out with it and knocking a few near by carriers of course or send them into a free fall which they could not recover from and fall to the ground destroyed.

With one shot Zechs just destroyed many suits, but it was not enough.

Zechs took notice in the air, the next batch of mobile dolls were different. Same Taurus's, but weaponry was different. They had the standard rifle, but also had a cannon of which he had never seen before. The cannon had a short barrel with a large radius. It was rather peculiar looking and couldn't be accurate.

These dolls took the arm mounted cannon and began firing the cannons shells into the city and all landscape it could reach. The shells were not bullets by any means. They resembled large canisters. Cylindrical canisters.

Zechs could not shot all of them. There were hundreds of these cylindrical shells being dropped onto the ground. His own beam cannon had just been fired for the fourth time on maximum, and he only had minimum power available for it at the moment. Like the Wing Zero which required the Buster Rifle to recharge after three consecutive shots, the Tallgeese was limited to four shots or the weapon could overheat and warp.

He aimed up, he would just have to pick them off and get as many as he could. Lifting the beam cannon once again out of it's holster he aimed at one canister and fired. Once the canister was penetrated it exploded into a massive fireball. But this explosion was different. It was a weaker explosion and it spread out as if it was a hand of fire reaching out. Then it hit Zechs what these were. Normal bombs don't explode like this. These were incendiary bombs.

Incendiary could not take out any armor, or destroy bunkers. But it made it hot. Too hot for a human. Everything catches on fire, and the ground becomes so hot a person cannot walk on it. Soldier can die from the immense heat as it melted their skin away. And Orb, was never equipped to take an attack like this. No country is.

Incendiary is not a weapon you use when try to take over a land or city. It's a weapon of annihilation. This wasn't an invasion of Onogoro, it was a massacre.

Zechs aimed and fired a second round only to take out one of the hundreds of falling incendiary grenades. He fired with his Vulcan cannons and slashed with his beam sword to tae out as many as he could. He unfortunately was only able to destroy a handful.

Before the bombs hit the ground, about a kilometer high, they burst open, with each bomb spraying out hundreds of smaller bombs. Once they hit the ground it lit up like the sun. Fire spread through the street and buildings quickly. It lit the ground on fire, starting a roaring forest fire in the nearby Orb national forest.

Zech's pulled up the link to the battle command. He was greeted with the face of his wife. She was grim to say the least. Even he couldn't imagine they would go this far.

"Noin." He spoke out, still as calm as ever.

She looked up into the pixels that showcased his eyes. She knew what he wanted. Nodding her head, she moved to the side and let Peacecraft address the counsel.

"Councilmen," He spoke, "I regret to inform you that the nation of Orb is about to be no more. Our defenses had crumbled as well as the land we thrive upon is being destroyed as we speak." He had all the attention of everyone, but Cagalli, who was crying with her head in her hands. "I do not believe we will be able to win this fight, nor do I believe our enemies will allow us to surrender. In all my military belief and reasoning, I find the best course of action would be to abandon Orb." Everyone gasped. Even Cagalli moved her head to stair at him. Zechs continued as they remained silent, "Not only do I believe it is the best course, but also the only honorable course we as the leaders of Orb can grant our people. We have to save as many as we can, civilians and soldiers."

He awaited their decision. His rail gun would take at least twenty more minutes to recharge. The enemy had resorted to different tactics. One's not allowing Zechs to fight they way he wanted. He had to resort to flying straight for the incendiary bombs and destroy them manually with his saber.

* * *

"No!" Cagalli screamed. "No! I will not let this happen again. I will not!" She continued crying in her chair. In her breath she talked to the deceased. "I won't let this happen again, father." But all she said was in vain.

It was already decided by her generals to abandon Orb. Orders were being sent out as she spoke.

All were in low spirits. The battle had only been going for a little over a half hour. They had not even had time to inform all the remote parts of Orb such as space vessels and the colonies about the attack. Orb had fallen quickly.

Noin placed a hand on the shoulder of the blonde. Cagalli then burst into tears, letting them fall freely from her face. Only once had she cried like this, the time she lost her father and her country for the first time. But now it was different, because she may never get it back.

Noin moved and talked into Cagalli's ear. "We have to go."

"No! We have to fight. We have to stay our ground. We can't let them bully us!" She moved away from Noin, not letting the black haired woman the chance to grab her.

"Cagalli, you're not thinking rationally." Noin yelled. And Cagalli clearly wasn't. Everything she stood for was gone. It was not the same as when EA or Orb attacked. Everything was gone.

Placing her hands on the blond girl, Noin applied pressure in all the right spots. After a moment Cagalli's screaming died down, and all that was heard from her was heavy breathing. Noin called Kisaka over to assist her, and carry Cagalli to an escape shuttle.

"Take care of her Peacecraft." One general said out load. As Orb military rule, the generals could not leave until the battle was over. No matter what the outcome. And the case of a retreat, they would be the last to leave. And these generals had no intention of abandoning their posts. They would follow in the steps of the former Representative Autha and make sure that nothing left would be salvageable for the enemy.

"I will." Noin bowed. She did not salute like Orb military did. Not at this instant. She bowed as a Romefellar soldier does. She bowed as an Oz soldier.

Another general came and talked to her. "We may have lost White Base and the Island, but Orb still exists in space. We still have the rest of the colonies."

Noin nodded at him. She remained silent.

"I have a request." The leading general spoke up. The man roamed over to the video screen that displayed Zechs. "I want both Peacecrafts to accompany her to space. Zech's piloting is superb it would be a shame to waste him in this futile battle."

The man noticed the hesitation in Zechs voice and answered the unasked question. "Don't make this an order. I still out rank you Peacecraft."

"Yes sir." Was Zechs reply, followed by Noin doing the same thing.

"You two know what to do. You practically created her escape route. Keep her safe." With this Zechs cut off his feed. All the generals in the room gave one last final salute to Cagalli before she was carried away.

Once again that girl will survive the loss of her country. While it may never be the same again, as long as she lives, so does Orb. That was the thoughts of the generals as they prepared to die for their country.

* * *

Athrun sat down on one of the empty seats on the bridge. Unlike the reunion between the Eternal and the Musuai, this was all about business.

Athrun was supposed to be in the Tsukumiya, not arrive in the Justice with many damaged Orb mobile suits. Ounce the Justice was identified and all the char and scraps on it and the other suits where seen, everyone knew that the Tsukumiya was lost.

He got a quick drink as he sat down and begun telling the story to every one about what happened. "We were attacked. It was pretty uneventful trip until we stumbled across a ship."

Kira sat in front of his friend and handed him a towel and a glass of water that Lacus had brought up. "What ship?"

"A giant ship." Athrun panted out. He was clearly exhausted.

"How big?"

"Big. At first I thought it was a small research colony, but it moved too fast and was too nimble. It had many weapons and in moments our vessel was destroyed. I barely had enough time to get to the Justice before the Tsukumiya was destroyed."

Yzak came up. "The size of a colony? What vessel is that big?"

"Chill." Dearka said, "Let him finish."

Athrun continued, "They sent out a small attack force and dwindled our military force to the few suits you see here. They were the same suits I saw in your report of the White Base attack. They destroyed half our suits, then stopped and left."

"They just left?"

Athrun took another drink. "Yes. They left us there. I ordered a retreat and we all headed here."

A small red light began flashing brilliantly on the CIC and was accompanied by a slight beeping sound. "Excuse me." Shiho said as Duo moved aside to let her mess with it.

"And that's not all." Athrun said. Kira, Lacus, and everyone there eyed him. "The ship was Zaft. I could tell by the weapons and design. Its architecture and materials it was made of. There was no doubt about it. It's a Zaft vessel."

No further questions were asked as Shiho dropped everything she had in her hand and gasped as load as she could. Everyone turned their attention to her as she interrupted them and read the emergency transmission..

Shiho spoke, "It's a message from Orb. Code 1347. Orb has fallen. Surprise attack. Retaliation proved to be futile. All force to withdraw and seek shelter in willing countries. Onogoro has fallen. The mainland is to be abandoned. Repeat Orb has fallen. Ability to retaliate is unlikely. Save yourselves. All military personnel and citizens are to retreat to friendly countries. Orb has fallen."

Everyone remained dead quiet in the room. No surprise could have prepared them for this. No one talked. Not a sound was heard. Even Kelly in her young years understood that something bad just happened.

Only one voice was heard. Only one sound sounded in the moment of silence. Shiho spoke again. "Orb has fallen."

**Okay, not much was changed in this chapter. Well till next time. Please review, I need to know how I'm doing.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry about the late update for you five people who actually read this. I'm within the finishing stretches of school, so updates may be a little slow for a few weeks.**

Ch. 7

Night never occurs on a ship. Especially a ship of war, the lights never turned off. So much skill is required to be able to drift to and fro unnoticed down the cramped corridors. Lower artificial gravity in the hanger section of the ship made it easy to mask the noise of one's steps, however the large number of active crew made it nearly impossible to get anywhere unnoticed. And as Wufei quickly learned, this was a very efficient crew.

It took a while, but patience was one of his best qualities and eventually Wufei made it to the cockpit of the Freedom. As he slide inside he noted the huge difference from his suit. Computer controls and buttons lined the small room, making it appear like a Christmas tree when lit. There were far more controls in this little cockpit than in his and yet it used a single joystick for maneuvers. It was vastly different from the Nataku's dual joystick set up.

Infact the cockpit looked too complex. Too much computer control. There were buttons Wufei noticed that had a bunch of wear on them from being pressed repeatedly, and then others that the labels had started to fade and had never been used. It seemed so complicated that he began to realize just why naturals couldn't operate them at first. They were just complicated.

He preferred his set up. Simple and reliable. Sure he upgraded his suit to take advantage of this worlds technology, but the simple commands and the need for constant human input for the suit to even just move gave his suit more character.

But Wufei wasn't here to compare his suit with Kira's. He had a reason. Pulling a small disk from his shirt pocket he started the main computer and upload a program. Within seconds the program had run it's course and the disk ejected. Pocketing it back up, Wufei leaped out and made his way for his quarters.

* * *

Kisaka carrying Cagalli followed Noin through the winding hall. The secret passage directly connected the government house with another secret hanger. It was filled with water and originally built over a hundred years ago as a secret submarine hanger.

In the center of the hanger sat the Archangel. She was the first of her class and is considered by most military's as the most successful battleship class built thus far. Even though the Archangel went rouge, the class which currently consisted of sixteen vessels, had yet to lose one in combat with the exception of the Dominion. Even Zaft's answer to it, the Minerva class, which on paper seemed to be a vastly superior piece of weaponry, wasn't as successful. The Minerva class was designed with the Archangel class in mind, but out of twenty-six registered Minerva class vessels, eight had been lost and two of those were due to battle with Archangel class battleships.

The twin legged ship was a symbol of peace in the last two wars and has reached a level of fame through out both the plants and earth. The vessel had fought alongside Orb in both wars and was hidden at the end of each. People knew that the ship was in Orb territory, but few knew where the vessel was hidden or anything about the crew.

A low pitched rumble filled the room as the main reactor powered up. The water that the ship sat in began to boil from the immense heat put out by the ships massive main drives. The ship was readying it self to leave. All that was missing was the sleeping representative.

"Let's go." Noin said and they walked up a catwalk to the loading dock. There they were met by members of the ships security team as well as the captain. Noin saluted the captain and spoke up. "Ma'am, Lt. Peacecraft. I'm accompanying the representative aboard the Archangel."

Murrue left no time for small talk. "Yes, we have received word. The ship is ready for launch."

The group entered the ship. Kisaka took Cagalli to the infirmary while the rest went to the bridge. On the bridge most of the original surviving members of the Archangels crew were ready to go. Murrue maintained a small amount of happiness as her crew still remained loyal to her even after all these years.

Miriallia operated the CIC and addressed the bridge. "Reactor now within operating temperatures. Chief engineer Murdock reports that we are ready to move out."

"Thank you Miriallia." Murrue said. "Our immediate priority is to get out of Orb. After that we have no orders or destination."

Noin answered her. "General Peacecraft will accompany the ship. He will assist in our escape. And we do have a place to go." Noin added.

* * *

Borodin sat alone in his room. He was reading the book that was his only remaining heirloom he had from his wife. He sat reading alone until Ivan entered the room. Borodin placed the book down, knowing his time of relaxation was up. Work needed to begin.

"Sir, the new crew has arrived and received their assignments. I suggest a day till we move out would be a fair amount of time for them to get acquainted with the ship."

"Hhhmm." Borodin grunted. "Good. The more people we have to operate this ship the better. And the old crew."

"Extradited Sir, as you ordered."

As with any mutiny or cue de ta there always was the fear of the crew of the vessel not following the renegade captains commands. Borodin himself knew this well and being unable to assign each person individually onto his ship, (that was a job for the naval office back at December), then he just simply replaced the original crew with one of his choosing.

Borodin removed himself from his chair and grabbed a manilla folder sitting on the desk. Ivan thought it was odd that an old type of folder would exists, but the words classified adorned the top and immediately he knew why and where it came from. After all you can't hack paper. "Was that taken from Admiral Gates quarters?"

Borodin handed it to Ivan. "You've seen the reports on the television of the Yamato's being killed and of this Zaft liberation society?"

"Yes Sir. I broadcast it throughout the ship as you said." Ivan opened the folder and started to skim through it.

"Apparently chairman Himler did not release the identities of all the members of the Zaft Liberation Society."

Ivan read through the document. It was nothing but a list of names. It gave the date of birth, Zaft identity number and stated them all as deceased. "These are all apparent members of the Zaft liberation society? They are all dead."

"You don't recognize anybody?"

Ivan scanned the documents some more before shaking his head. "No Sir."

Borodin retrieved the document and placed it in a small safe at the back of the room. "It's a large list. You look at it enough you will find some names you know."

Ivan looked on quizzically till Borodin finally answered his question. "The people in this document are the construction workers and engineers of the Gunship class battleships. Basically everyone who knows about this ship with the exception of the higher up generals, the chairman, and the crews of these ships, are on this list."

"Sir are you saying that they have all been killed?"

"They were massacred Ivan. More than likely they were killed by the very weapons that they had built."

"Why would they do this captain? Why kill your own people?"

Borodin paused before continuing. "The chairman doesn't necessarily want the existence of this ship known. This ship was built to wage a war against earth." Borodin paused to think over what he said. "Or rather, he doesn't want anyone to know that this ship is associated with Zaft."

"I don't understand. What could the chairman want?"

"We are nothing more than pawns and he himself is included. No, it's not what the chairman wants, it's what Romafellar wants. They want power and control. They couldn't get it before back in the other world so they will get it here."

Ivan neatly put the papers back into the folder and handed it to Borodin. "Where did you get this?"

Borodin took it and placed it before himself on the desk. Again Ivan witnessed something that only he had in the past. Borodin pulled out an old fashion cigar and lit the end. He held his lighter up and stared at it while he puffed smoke. "Some of our friends in Terminal snuck it out. It's best that we send our regards you think?"

Ivan nodded his head in agreement. Borodin smiled and grabbed the manilla folder. He ran it across the lit flame before throwing it on the desk to burn. "And thus, none shall know."

* * *

The Archangel exited the water and began flight. Immediately it was attacked by mobile dolls. Just like the last war, the Archangel was upgraded and improved. The new 15.7 anti-armor Amaru cannons provided a respectable defense against the mobile dolls and the ship was able to put up a fight.

Ounce the ship cleared the water, the crew was able to see the homeland and silence just filled the room. No one spoke as they stared at the charred island. The whole Island was nearly to flame. The fires started by the incendiary bombs were only fueled by the Orb national forests. The crew could see the wildlife retreat to the beach as flames engulfed all the trees. The fire was large enough that it could be seen from outer space.

Only a few Orb mobile suits were still operational and fighting. Among all the suits fighting, Noin could still see Zech's in the Tallgeese dominating the mobile dolls.

The Archangel shuck from a direct hit and the crew refocused.

"Enemy mobile suits on our six. They're equipped with anti-ship weaponry!" Miriallia informed the captain.

"Turn us to port and bring our gottfried's on them." Murrue had to get the enemy suits off there back. The Archangel had only minimum weaponry at the rear. The ship dived to the side and she had to hold on to her chair. Combat maneuvers were very physically demanding on earth with the gravity providing extra force upon the body. The Archangel leveled itself out and brought itself perpendicular to the enemy squad of dolls.

"We are in range Maam." The ensign reported.

"Fire!" Murrue yelled. Though the Gottfried was a beam cannon, the massive amount of power could be felt through the ship, as the Archangel drifted in the opposing direction of the shot.

"Direct hit Maam. We took out five mobile suits. The rest are falling back."

Mirriallia was the next to speak to the captain. "Maam, Commander La Flagga reports that he is ready to launch in the Akatsuki."

Marrue was hesitant. She was always hesitant when it came to him. In normal life he was the man of the family and she was the part of the normal wife. But in combat as such, the roles were turned and her husband, Mwu La Flagga, took orders from her and she never wanted to send him to battle. But she also knew that she couldn't stop him either. "Very well. Launch the Akatsuki."

"Aye Maam. Akatsuki away." Miriallia said. Again Murrue question herself as she heard the distinctive noise of electrical discharge coming from the catapult. She watched as the golden suit flew off and engaged the enemy.

Mirriallia spoke again, this time yelling at near the top of her lungs. "Vast number of mobile suits Maam. Their at nine o'clock. They appear to be carrying large beam artillery."

Murrue looked at a small screen hanging from the ceiling of the bridge that displayed that angle of the ship and she jumped from her sat. No doubt that was anti-ship weaponry. One of the suits was carrying a large beam cannon that could rip a whole through the antimatter tank shields. "Increase altitude and evade the attack!"

The Archangel climbed up and avoided the blunt of the attack. The large beam weapon missed, but flew by close enough to melt paint off the ship. But while she avoided the main weapons attack, she was bombarded with small anti-ship fire.

Murrue regretted leaping from her chair, as she found herself on the ground and the alarms seeming even louder. The bridge itself took just as bad a hitting with terminals knocked out of order or spraying sparks.

"Bring us about and fire all batteries." Murrue lost no composure as she returned to her seat. This time she put on the seat belt.

Being at a higher altitude then it should be, the Archangel made a slow dive while bring all its main guns onto the enemy suits. Murrue held onto her straps as the floor became a slick slide that was joined by the unsettling view of water, ground and sky, all in the wrong places.

Even on the bridge, with all its sound protection and armor, the noise from the batteries was load and heard by all. Murrue watched as the suits tried to flee, but were overcome by sheer number of fire power. It was ironic, at how they too could be destroyed by sheer number.

"Report." She called out ounce the attacking suits were destroyed at the Archangel was safe for just a minute.

Through a little speaker on her chair Mr. Murdocks voice came in. "All port side batteries are out. The main electrical connection in CB junction was taken out. This is our biggest priority now. They riddled whole on the side of the ship so we can't pressurize those sections. It'll take drydock to repair all those. One impulse engine is offline, but I can't give you an opinion on that until I take a look."

Now this was bad. Half her weapons were knocked out. Whoever this enemy was, they knew where to aim their guns. "What's the best you can make of it?"

"We're putting all our effort into the guns. We'll have them working in no time. The artificial gravity wont work if we can't pressurize the port side hull or dive under water. We may be able to make some patches, but it will be best for everyone just to wear space suits if they come here. And like I said, I haven't had a chance to take a look at the engine, but from the pressure and coolant drop readings, I say it was hit and it will take drydock and a replacement."

"How long on the guns?"

"An hour, but I'll have them useable in fifteen minutes."

It was bad, but survivable. The ship had gone through worse before. If Mr. Murdock can get the port side guns working, then the ship would still be at full combat strength. None of the damage really effected her operation. "Thank you, please hurry."

The Archangel now level again,Murrue unbuckled her seat belt and rose. She stared out the massive window and onto the battle. The Archangel was far enough away to see the burning island in the distance. Noise from large explosions could be heard. As she looked she made the decision. "Mirriallia, call back the Akatsuki and inform the hanger to prep for retrieval of commander Peacecrafts mobile suit and any accompany Orb mobile suits as we can."

"Aye Ma'am." The bridge was quiet and the alertness was not in Mirriallia's voice.

Murrue continued. "Mrs. Peacecraft. Please give your directions to the helm. Ounce we have retrieved the suits we will dive and head out."

"Ma'am." Even though Nion outranked Murrue, it felt fitting to address her as such. After all, the Archangel was different. She couldn't tell what it was, but this was not Orb's ship. This was captain Ramius's ship and no matter what, she was always in control.

* * *

Caridad Yamato walked down the street clinging to her husband. They walked down an empty street very close. Haruma kept his wife in a protective hold. The two had relocated to the plants to live near their son and his wife. They were Kira's parents, and he still called them mother and father, but in actuality they are his Aunt and Uncle. Via Hibiki, Kira and Cagalli's biological mother, was the younger sister of Caridad Yamato. Caridad explained everything to Kira within the years after the war.

Signaling down, they were surprised that a taxi stopped to pick them up. Ounce inside they asked the driver to take them home. The driver looked back at them confirmed the address and then was off. It was odd however. Most cab companies will only hire men to drive their cabs. This is due to the large amount of contact with strangers, were in the past their was an extremely large amount of female cab drivers being raped.

However this one was a girl, no older then twenty. She had golden blonde hair tied up and placed under her hat. The way the hat bulged out meant she had a lot of hair under it. She was dressed with the typical uniform that all cabbies were. She looked to be mainly French.

For Caridad, today was the first time out of her house since she learned of what happened to her son's house. She locked herself up in her room and cried as she did when Heliopolis was destroyed. She left only today to help her husband who had been searching all week for any information about their son and his family.

The news they found was startling. Kira Yamato and more importantly his wife Lacus Yamato had been killed.

Over the years Caridad had grown really close to her daughter in law. During the time at the orphanage the two got to know each other, but it was with the birth of Kelly that the two really spent time together. Caridad loves her daughter in law just as much as her son.

"Excuse me." Haruma called out to the cab driver. "This is not the way to our house."

Haruma had been able to keep himself together just a little bit better then Caridad. He was calm, but extreme worry was still evident in his voice.

Caridad strengthen her grip on her husband. Coordinators had been known to beat or rap naturals in recent times, and the cab driver, though a woman, was still fully capable to take her out and possible her husband. If she was a coordinator.

"I'm sorry. But we are not going to your house." The cabby said.

"Then where are we going?" Caridad almost yelled out the question.

"You are the parents of Kira Yamato. The husband to former chairwoman Lacus Yamato?"

They nodded their heads. Caridad did not know why, but she answered truthfully.

The cabby looked back with an idiotic smile. "You're going to be my ticket."

"Ticket?"

She turned back and focused on driving the car. "Ticket to see your son."

"Kira! He's alive?"

The cabbies voice became very serious, throwing aside the cheerfulness it once had. "I will explain everything I know later. Mr. Yamato had escaped along with his family. Right now we are being followed, so try to stay calm."

Caridad did not know what to do. She did not know how to act. She just remained quiet. She had no idea whether to trust this girl, but at the moment, she had to.

"HOLD ON!" The cabby yelled. She then turned the car down an alley and sped as fast as she could.

Haruma looked back to see three black sedans speeding up and following them down the same alley. "What's going on?"

"That's Zaft special forces." The cabby said.

"What do they want?"

"To kill you." the cabby swung the car again into another connecting alley. It was night in the colony, and the mirrors had turned to deflect only a hint of moon light rather then sunlight.

The cab pulled into an old mobile armor manufacture base which had been converted to a residential area after the advent of the Zaku.

The rear glass of the cab shattered as the cabby pulled down another street. The street turned out to be a dead end. Fenced up there was no way out. The cabby did a complete 180 degree turn before coming to a stop.

The three black cars then stopped not far from the three in the cab.

"Prepare to get out." the cabby said. She then pulled a gun out of the glove box.

"What! They'll kill us!"

Just then a small foot ball shaped metal capsule flew and punctured the middle car. When it hit the car exploded in a ball of flame, killing all men inside it and pushing the other two car sideways.

A sound of a large piece of metal hitting the ground was heard, and a gigantic green foot placed itself no more then inches away from the front of the taxi.

The three occupants in the taxi looked up at the giant. It was a green mobile suit. Missile crates were placed all along it's body. On it's back were three things. In the middle looked to bee some sort of beam rifle, while attached to it on the sides were two twined 27 barreled Gatling guns.

The vulcan cannons on the head of the suit opened fire and rained bullets down, destroying the other two cars.

"All right. Keep your head down. This is where it's going to get tricky." The cabby said. She then floored the cab again. She headed straight for the Zaft Naval Base with the green suit right behind her.

As they neared the cabby took the small radio on the dash and contacted the pilot of the suit. "Trowa. Now it's your turn."

Trowa acknowledged what she said and jumped the Heavyarms high in to the sky. The sky was a figurative term on the plant. As he jumped up he pulled out his two Gatling guns and fired them destroying all vacant mobile suits.

Luckily just as Trowa predicted there was no mobile dolls stationed at this base. He shot the ground up, forcing a way for the taxi into on of the ship hangers.

The Heavyarms itself received the most drastic changes to it over the last five years. All the weapons had to be converted to use ammunition from this world, were as before, the ammunition he brought with him was not replaceable. The Heavyarms since the beginning had the most armor of all the Gundams. It's gundanium armor was twice as think. The newest weapon added was a high intensity beam rifle on it's back.

But the most dangerous upgrade the Heavyarms received was the new cockpit set up. Something that Trowa had been designing since before the Heavyarms was first activated. The new set up allows quick and easy management of the suits functions, allowing him to control as many weapons as he needed at the same time. While the twin gatling guns and the suit were controlled like a normal suit, all the missiles, beam rifle, and close proximity guns were controlled by a point click touch panel. Of course if that failed, they could be operated normally.

Ounce Trowa was satisfied with the destruction he caused, he picked up the smaller taxi, deciding it would be faster if he just carried it. He turned off the audio so he could not hear the Yamato woman's screams while be lifted.

Using LAMB missile he made holes in the increasing amount of colony walls until he finally made it to a ship hanger. It was not a primary ship hanger, which is why it was evacuated instead launching the ship.

Out in the space of the hanger was a white vessel. The black lettering on the side of the ship identified it as the Eternity. The Eternity which was the second/final ship of the Eternal design. It was near completion when the Eternal was abducted. During the war, it was decided that mobile suit transport ship like the Eternal class were no good. They were turned down in favor of battleships which could as well transport just as many suits. With the loss of the Eternal and end of the second war, the Eternal class was abandoned and the Eternity was modified into a military transport.

The Eternity looked like a white Eternal without most of the beam weapons and METEOR units. It's only offensive weapon was the triple beam cannon on the top. But the Eternity had one quality that is what drew Trowa's attention to it. The Eternal class ships where still the fastest known ships created by Zaft. The Eternity should easily be able to escape.

Trowa set the car down right next to the bridge maintenance hatch. Upon this he let the three out of the vehicle and he threw the car away.

The girl who was driving the cab entered the bridge with the Yamato's. Immediately she began typing commands into the computer.

The vessel powered up. It's vast engines causing a soft rumble on the room. Trowa positioned the heavy arms on the Eternity in a position to protect the bridge.

"What's going on?" Caridad asked the girl. "What are you doing?"

The girl moved from the pilots seat and moved to the security monitor. She then punched in a few commands, closing all bulk heads and locking the ship down from outsiders. She had to work fast. Three minutes was all the time she reckoned till Zaft realized what they were doing.

"I used to be stationed on this ship." she replied. She left the security station and moved to the CIC. Quickly she called Trowa. "Trowa, I'm going to kill the radio and wifi."

Trowa acknowledge what she was saying. Killing the radio and wifi was an expression. Basically it meant shutting off all means for the ship to communicate. This in turn also shuts down the computer's ability to communicate to another computer, or another computer communicate with it. Shutting down the wifi meant the ship and the Heavyarms would not be able to talk, but Zaft could not override the commands and turn the ship back around.

Once the girl did this she moved herself to the weapons control. Taking the firing control she aimed and fired from all three barrels on the triple barreled gun. Her sights was the dock doors.

The dock doors were basically just two metal slabs held in place by magnets. The Plant had been designed to with hold an outside attack, but was designed so if an emergency like a ship accidentally hitting the doors, they would collapse and drift off into space. That means the inside was venerable and a direct hit from a beam weapon could force the two doors out of their basic hinges and float away in space.

The electromagnetic beams hit the doors blasting three holes in them. The high intensity electricity traveled through the metallic doors and disrupted the electro-magnets holding the doors in place for a split second. That coupled with the force being pushed by the beam caused the two doors to fly open.

The girl moved back into the pilots seat and moved the ship out. She slammed the throttle controls, not caring about the amount of damage to the docking bay that the Eternity's main drives would cause. Moving out it was clear that another vessel was moving in to attack them. It was one of Zaft's most advanced, a Minerva class vessel.

The Minerva class was an enigma. During the first war Zaft had come to a realization after the Archangel made an appearance. Unsuccessful attempts to destroy it and it's sister ship the Dominion caused Zaft engineers to design a new vessel, fearing that their were out dated by comparison. After the final battle Zaft secretly obtained the remains of the Dominion, but more importantly spies were able to steal a copy of the blue prints of the third ship, the Pegasus. These were given to the engineers and thus the Minerva was born. However the Minerva was considered a great failure. Three Minerva class ships were in operation during the last battle of Messiah. One was destroyed while the Minerva herself was heavily damaged. One ship remained in combat the entire time, yet they could not take down a single one of the Earth Alliances Archangel class vessels, which had grown to a number of ten (not including the Archangel) by the battle of Messiah.

But the Minerva class was slow and the only ship in the area. Things could not be better for the Eternity.

The girl moved the Eternity in a course heading for the moon at full speed. It has been said that one person cannot operate a ship alone, and it was true. The Eternity would be easy pray if the Minerva class ever caught up with it. The girl could not pilot and use weapon control at the same time. Not to mention that the Minerva is a battleship and the Eternity is a mobile suit transport ship. Also they were just praying that the engine's would not give them trouble at the moment. The blond haired girl knew nothing about them, but also had no one to monitor them at the moment in case something went wrong.

Enemy mobile suit headed for the Eternity from the Minerva class. They were still a good distance and Trowa did not want to leave the ship. The Heavyarms could not ketch back up if he left.

He pulled out the only beam weapon he had, a Galvetron RX-78 high intensity beam rifle. In lay mans terms, a beam sniper rifle. It was a marvel of engineering as complex as a mobile suit itself. The 'barrel' and all it's contents expand to three times it length, giving it even greater accuracy. The rifle could hit a destroyer from over a one hundred miles away in space. Accurate up to fifty miles on earth. The beam was smaller and a very dark blue, making it hard to see in space, and it traveled twice as fast. And to think, that Trowa had the only one.

The barrel extended and Trowa fired, easily taking out one Zaku. The three accompanying Zaku's for a second hesitated, but maintained course. Trowa fired again, destroying another, leaving two more left.

They were still a little bit of a distance away. Trowa turned his attention from them to the Minerva class. Taking aim, he fired, slicing a hole in the ships main left engine, slowing it down.

Once this happened, the Minerva class vessel released it's signal flairs for the Zaku's to return. The main hatch opened on the Eternity and Trowa moved the Heavyarms into place within.

The blonde girl sighed and finally took off her hat, letting her long hair flow freely down to her knees. "That turned out better then I thought. Are you two okay?"

The Yamato's just stared at her. They seemed to be in aw, confused, and scared. "Why did you do this?"

The girl laughed. "Like I said, you are my tickets to see Mr. And Mrs. Kira Yamato." she held out her hand. "My name is Cassidy Barton. Nice to meet you."

**Please review. It makes me want to write more.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Wings of Destiny**

**ch.8**

**

* * *

**

It was 'night' time on the Eternal. All personnel who were not currently running a shift were asleep, or trying to be asleep. It had been rather quiet and in a more negative mood since the news about Orb came through.

Zala had taken it hard. Once the news came, all he did was continuously try to contact anyone over the whereabouts of Cagalli. Kira and Lacus both were not doing well either. They seemed rather depressed, but tried to remain strong to help Athrun through it. They would take turns with helping Athrun and watching Kelly.

Through the whole ordeal they had tried to keep what was going on away from Kelly. Kelly loved her Aunt very much. She was still to young to understand what was going on, but her innocence help people cope with the recent events. Close members of the crew, would visit and play with her to get their minds off what was happening.

However, two volunteer members of the crew had a little different attitude. The Eternal currently had nowhere to go. Originally they planned to retreat to an Orb colony, but with Orb being under attack the crew decided to reroute. Now the ship was just drifting in space with no destination.

Commander Waltfield was in command at the moment, with a skeleton crew. Kira and Lacus were in their room asleep with Kelly. Athrun finally collapsed from exhaustion. Unfortunately for Duo, Meyrin was sleeping, sharing a room with her sister. Shinn was awake somewhere in the ship.

"What are you doing? Women's work?"

Duo turned his chair around to be greeted by Wufie. "Well good morning to you too."

Wufie took a near bye chair, turned it backwards and sat in it near bye Duo. "Mechanics downstairs keep bugging me about my Gundam. They can't just seem to get to stay away from it."

Duo who was operating the combat information center was monitoring all the channels to see if any of the other gundam boys were on it. On the side, he like everyone else on the ship where watching what was happening on earth. "Might as well let them help. I mean you and me can only do so much to the suit. It'd be good to get some help with repairs in the future."

Wufie was too tired to argue, but Duo had a point. Even being helped by Duo they could only do minor maintenance. If the Nataku was to get badly damaged, then he would have to get help by the crew.

But one of the secrets that make the five Gundams so powerful was the ease of maintenance and the lack of the need for it. The Tallgeese frame was built to withstand hard and long confrontations and require little repair time. The standard Leo, as well as its equivalent Zaku, need fifteen hours of maintenance for every one hour of use, not including time in combat. The Freedom was worse since it was the only mobile suit of its kind and needed special equipment and trained technicians to maintain. But the g-boy's suits needed only three hours for everyone one, and have been known to fight along time without any.

The five gundams were a marvel of engineering. The basic frame was so simple in design it appeared out dated, but the support braces were designed so when they are hit, they recoil against each other, allowing the suit to take far less damage then normal when hit. This also helped lessen maintenance, however the gundamanium was the only part of the suits that could not be repaired with out the aid of Howard's shop. Howard came to this world as well, and is the only person who knows how to make gundamanium.

Aside from the armor the Nataku could still give them problems. It took all five of the g-boys months just to convert one of the Gundams to be compatible with the tools and equipment from this world. That included changing bolt sizes and ammunition. The Heavyarms took the longest because of the amount of work. Which made sense as all the ammunition the Heavyarms originally came with could not be replaced in this world.

"I still do not agree."

"Well these people are our friends, so I don't think it could hurt much."

"_Right now_ they are our friends."

Duo turned and looked straight at Wufie. "What does that mean?"

"The only reason they are our friends is because of that Hawke girl. If you screw this one up, then no telling whose side they are on."

"No faith man. No faith. I don't plan on messing this relationship up."

"Yeah. That's what you said about Hilde, and how did that turn out."

Duo turned away back to the CIC. "That's a low blow man. Besides how did it work out with you and Sally? I never thought of you going after the older ones."

Wufie almost yelled at Duo. "For the last time Maxwell, there was no romantic relation between me and Sally."

"I mean that's cool if you like girls older then your mother, but whatever."

"Besides I was not her type."

Dou turned and looked at Wufie with a smile on his face. "So you did like her." But the look Wufie gave him back was something different. Duo could sense he was getting something wrong. "Wait. What do you mean not her type?"

"I'll put it so you understand. Whenever we went to a bar, I always felt I was competing with her."

"What do you mean compete..." Duo's eyes widened at a realization. He nearly yelled, "You mean she is a lesbian!"

Wufie himself raised his voice. "You mean you didn't know? The way she acted, like a man all the time. Don't tell me you never saw the way she would look at Noin. It disgusted me."

Duo was dumbfounded. "No I guess I just never paid close attention."

Andrew Waltfield, who was currently in command of the ship stepped in. "Hey, keep it down. Everyone's trying to sleep."

Both of them lowered their voices, while Duo let out a sorry for the both of them. Wufie spoke, deciding a change in topic would help. "Have you contacted anyone else?"

Duo knew exactly who Wufie was talking about. "Well I have only got the one message from Trowa. I just got one from Quatre a little while ago. He was about to receive both Zechs and Noin. He said he will send a message once they were safe. Haven't heard from Heero."

"I doubt he will be of much help himself." Wufie said.

"Have you talked to him lately?" If it was true, it kind of hurt Duo. Duo was the closest friend to Heero, and even he had not seen him in almost two years.

"He asked me to do something for him. But it looks like he is going to refuse to fight."

"How's he doing?"

"Same as always, except he is with that woman all the time. She practically runs the family and he just follows her."

"That woman is Relena and I think you're too hard on her. She isn't like that." Wufei just snorted at that comment.

As the two bickered the CIC blared to life. On the screen a large red mass appeared on the radar and the machine bleeped rapidly. Duo did not know what to do, but Commander Waltfield knew that noise perfectly and immediately jumped up and was by the boy's side. The noise signaled tracker alert.

"What is it?" Waltfield asked.

* * *

"So what is the problem?" Shinn asked the head engineer on the Eternal. Ever since the last fight where the Destiny's reactor failed, Shinn has been weary of using his suit.

The engineer who really had other things to do than discuss this with Shinn talked while walking. "It's not a production suit. We don't have the parts for it."

"But you said you fixed it right?"

The engineer sighed. The Eternal was in good shape, but most of his repair team was helping out on the Musai. The crews were running really tight, and even he had a hard time keeping his crews on topic. Everyone just kept thinking about what was going on. It was increasingly difficult to control his men. "Yes, we made a cheap fix, but I can't guarantee anything. Like I said it's not a production suit. You can't just get up and repair it without parts."

"Well, can you tell me why it broke?"

"Looks like some parts went bad just sitting on standby for years. Your coils look they broke from shock load. Did you power up the suit before you headed out?"

A mobile suit with such a reactor as the Destiny needed to warm up for at least two to three hours before deployment. This is done to avoid the coil from becoming brittle from instant heat change. But, according to the Zaft regulations, any mobile suit with a reactor serving as the power source had to remain powered down when not in use during peacetime. This was not a problem before on the Minerva where the suit's reactor was just left on all the time.

Since Shinn never allowed the suit to warm up, and he really didn't have the time due to the attack on White Base, the coil became brittle and the safety systems to prevent this from happening had failed. All it took was the ramming action of one of the Virgo's to cause the coil to break and render the Destiny useless.

"Can I trust it?"

The engineered stopped in his tracks and turned to Shinn. "Look, I have done the best I can with what I have. To be honest, you need a new reactor. Those old prototype's where just never reliable. Now I have been working non-stop trying to repair what I can on your ship. If you will please excuse me." The engineer opened a small whole in the wall. The whole was small enough for just on person. He entered it only accompanied by a flash light and a handful of tools.

Shinn, still no calmer than before, headed for the lounge area. He had set an hour aside to talk to the maintenance crew about his suit, and since the talk only took minutes, he had some time to spare. Once he was there he nearly jumped on a couch and closed his eyes. He lay there for minutes just thinking.

Of course he knew the correct preventive maintenance procedures for his suit, but like most pilots, he mainly ignored them. This is the first time though it has ever bit him in the butt. Though to be fair, it still wasn't necessarily his fault. He had to get out into space and fight. White Base was under attack. Maintaining his suit was a minimal priority.

After a few minutes the door opened and Shinn listened as one set of footsteps entered the room. He didn't bother to open his eyes. He felt the cushion behind his head deflate as someone put their weight on it. The said person began toying with his hair, forcing it out of the ways of his eyes and twirling it around in her fingers.

"You awake?" the girl asked.

Shinn kept his eyes closed, but knew it was Luna. She was the only one who had such a fascination with his hair.

"Yeah." He answered. He felt…better, now that she was around.

"I finished all my work for now."

Luna finished playing with Shinns hair, and moved her hands behind her head and used them as support to rest her head. Shinn in turn scooted himself closer and layed his head in her lap. The two remained in a comfortable silence for minutes until Luna spoke.

"What are you thinking about?"

Shinn shifted his position before answering. "About all the 'little' things we have forgotten before this mess happened."

Luna wept a silent tear. Today was supposed to be a great day for her, but it was cut short. "You mean today?"

"Yeah."

Today, was supposed to be their wedding day. Both of them had gotten the month off for the event, as well as most of their friends. Shinn with his high rank was able to get the crew of the Musai some leave at White Base. During this time, they planned to wed at a small chapel over looking the Heliopolis memorial. It was a place that that Zala had shone Shinn ounce and the two just loved the place. But know it is all gone.

"Well." Shinn started. "I guess you can say that now you are my wife."

"We aren't yet married."

"Who can say we're not."

"Marriage has to be done legally, and through a court. There are legal documents you have to sign, and everything. Plus a ceremony."

"I don't mean to sound cold or insensitive, but is there really a nation now that will recognize us as being married?"

Luna sighed. Shinn was right. They had been abandoned by the Plants and now Orb was gone. It was really hard for her to get her head around, but just then and there did she realize that they were all alone.

Luna continued. "You know everything is gone. My dress was obliterated!"

Shinn grunted. His tuxedo, the catering, the chapel, everything was gone.

"And this is supposed to be our honeymoon!" Luna finished her rant and silence returned to the resting area.

The speaker came on sounding with Waltfeld's voice, ordering all the ranking officers to come to the bridge. Immediately Shinn and Luna knew something was wrong. Both got up, and walked to the bridged with their hands locked.

* * *

Captain Drew was not necessarily a well respected man outside of Romafellar. Sure, he knew how to command his ship, but he could never receive the praise that Borodin had received. Nevertheless, he did receive command of the fourth ship of the most dreadful battle ships ever conceived. As he entered the bridge, he would always comment on how ironically small it was for the size of the warship.

His ship the Monitor was the fourth gunship completed. And while she was among the largest ever built, her bridge was small and cramped. Most of the mass of the ship was taken up by the large amount of armaments, the huge propulsion systems, and the mobile doll factory which could turn out twenty dolls a day if working at full capacity. This left little room for social area's as well as the actual bridge. For a vessel this big, just finding the bridge is a near impossible feat. Perhaps that was the reasoning being it, but it always struck him at how the bridge was just a little larger than an old earth submarine's bridge.

He moved toward Lt. Commander Desden, who just yesterday received the honor of second in command. Previously he held the position of third, but because of the tragic death of Drew's first mate, the man received an untimely promotion.

"What's the situation?" Drew asked.

Desden answered. "We found the vessel we've been looking for. The Eternal." He flicked a few switches and an image of two ships was displayed on a screen for Drew to see. Two ships. One was unmistakably the Eternal, for only the former chairwoman would want a ship that color. The second was just an old generic Zaft ship.

"And get this…" Desdin continued. He seemed amused, which was not the proper protocol of how to act, but Drew would let it slide. "The registry of the other ship identifies it as the Musai. Which…"

Drew help up his hand to stop Desdin. He knew the Musai. It was mentioned in the last transmission from the Monitor's escort ship Pueblo. The Pueblo was the modified Minerva class vessel that is used for shuttle work on the Monitor. All ironclad vessels came with at least one Minerva class ship to be used in such a fashion. Just the day before, the Pueblo which was at the time being commanded by Drew's first officer encountered the Zaft ship Musai. At the time, the Monitor was engaged in battle with the Tsukumiya and was unable to provide back up for the Pueblo.

In fear that the Musai could contact Zaft command and inform someone of the existence of the Monitor, Drew ordered the Pueblo to destroy it.

However, fate played differently and the Pueblo ended up being destroyed rather than the Musai. All Drew received was half a transmission, that stated his second in commands apologies.

But his luck was good today. Not only was the Musai still near and not come in contact with Zaft command, but it also was with the Eternal, a ship that had already been designated as rouge and being persecuted by Romafellar and Zaft.

"That's not all Sir." Desdin said. "According to radar signals, the Cairo is incoming."

Drew's high spirits immediately faltered. The Cairo meant Borodin. Surely the legendary captain was after Drew's glory. Borodin was out to take the credit of the kill of the Eternal for himself. Well Drew wouldn't have that. He had lived in the legend's shadow for far to long.

"Helm, get us going as fast as you can. Ounce we're within three kilometers slow to match their velocity." He turned to the combat central. "Ounce there launch mobile dolls factions E thru G and focus attack on the ships." Drew then moved to his chair and addressed the entire bridge crew, "I want those ships destroyed before the Cairo gets here. The glory of the first kill of a gunship went to us when the Monitor destroyed the Tsukumiya yesterday. Let's also have the honor of the second and third."

The crew responded, most with head nods and a few 'yes sirs'. The massive engines roared and Drew could feel the vibrations as the ship began to move faster and faster toward the two smaller ships. He turned to his combat center. "Give of a warning shot off the Eternals left stern. I want them to know we're coming for them."

* * *

Shinn and Luna entered the bridge of the Eternal to find most everyone already there. Lacus and Kira stood toward the back as Commander Waltfeld sat in the captain's chair. Meyrin was at the CIC, but strangely was not accompanied by Duo, who was off to the other side of the room, whispers back and forth with Wufei. Everyone but Athrun was on the bridge.

Shinn was about to ask what was going on, but one look at the main monitor that hung from the ceiling and Shinn knew why everyone was called up here.

A massive ship was displayed. Its black cylindrical shape made it hard to see in outer space, but there was no doubt that it was a ship. One very large ship. About the size of a small colony. The ship appeared to be turned to them, and Shinn wondered how long both that ship and the Eternal had been staring at each other.

"Still not answering any hails." Meyrin yelled out.

Shinn looked around the bridge. "Where is Athrun?"

As if on cue, Athrun entered the bridge. His uniform was wrinkled and not tucked. His hair was a mess. He fiddled with the collar as he walked to Kira's side. Apparently he had been sleeping before heading to the bridge.

Everyone was silent till Athrun spoke. "That's the ship that attacked us and destroyed the Tsukumiya."

Waltfelt spent no time waiting for Lacus or anyone else to make up there mind. "Helm, take heading 204.11 at best speed that the Musai can keep with us."

The helmsman nodded. 204.11 took them in the opposite direction away from the massive vessel. With any luck, they could outrun it. After all, it is gigantic and can't be that fast.

Meyrin again spoke, this time she was a little more alarmed. "Vessel is moving. They are heading straight for us." Her eyes then went wide and she nearly stuttered as she said the next part. "They are firing weapons at us!"

At such an extreme distance, firing a shot at them was near pointless. It was far too easy for the Eternal to dodge, just as the pink ship did. But it had another purpose. It told the crew of the Eternal, that the massive black vessel was coming after them with nothing more than the motive to destroy them.

Waltfeld turned to yell at the pilots to get to their suits, but they had already left. He smirked at their readiness. He watched the view screen what looked like a giant blast came from the rear of the vessel. After a moment Waltfeld realized it wasn't a blast, but a means of propulsion. The large cylindrical ship was moving toward him at a speed Waltfeld would have previously thought impossible.

"The ship is moving in at increasing velocity!" Meyrin yelled. "It will be upon us in less than a minute."

Another blast came bye and Waltfeld held on to the chair as the Eternal tilted to avoid the blast.

"Vessel is slowing down!" Meyrin had to scream above the noise on the bridge. Waltfeld looked up at the main screen, and indeed the vessel appeared to be slowing down. What could they be planning? Why are they stopping? The Eternal could still dodge most every attack at this far range.

Waltfeld pondered this, but it soon became all to clear. An army sized swarm of mobile suits or mobile dolls left the giant vessel and made their way toward the Eternal.

* * *

Custom mobile suits such as the Freedom, Justice, and Destiny all required constant maintenance. While a custom mobile suit tends to have much higher capabilities of mass produced suits, they tend to be under engineered in the dependability department. Custom suits are usually equipped with unproven technology and superbly expensive equipment, that renders them impossible to be mass produced. In fact, most custom mobile suits are prototype suits designed to test new frame designs and weapon technologies, and rarely is the suit ever intended for full scale production.

The Eternal came equipped with a more advanced and up to date repair bay for such mobile suits. This was the reason the Destiny along with the Deathscythe were both on board the Eternal rather than the Musai. Shinn's hope was for the more knowledgeable technicians could repair the Destiny, but while they made a quick fix, he was told the reactor was shot, and he was basically praying the suit would last.

Unlike Shinn, Kira was fanatical when it came to the maintenance of the Freedom. He did everything by the book, and thus the reactor and all components that did not receive more than minor damage in the last fight were functioning perfectly.

As they exited the Eternal, Kira took the lead with both Shinn and Athrun at his sides. The other suits from the two ships followed behind the three. Kira scanned the area but couldn't find the Deathscythe or the Nataku.

"Massive number of mobile suits heading your way." Meyrin called over the speakers. She kept it professional, but even Kira could hear the dread in her voice.

Finally Kira noticed the blue hue coming from the thruster engines of the Deathscythe and Nataku. The two pilots were a good distance away from the group, but they were rather close to each other. Kira was about to call out to them to join with him, but was interrupted by Shinn's comments on the enemy.

"There's hundreds of them." Shinn said.

Kira had to agree. There were easily five hundred of what appeared to be mobile dolls heading for their group. Kira however remained focused. He wasn't going to lose it again this time. It didn't matter how many there where. His goal wasn't to destroy them, but to escape with the ship. He kept his doubts in the back of his mind.

The blue flame from the thrusters of the Deathscythe and Nataku glowed a greater bright color, and the two suits accelerate immensely toward the oncoming army. Kira was about to call the two back, but he couldn't form the words. He knew the two boys knew what they were doing. They had a better understanding of the enemy than he had. They weren't out on a suicide mission.

"Okay." Kira heard Shinn yell. "Lets go!"

"Shinn stop!" Kira yelled back before Shinn was able to leave the group. Kira than opened an audio channel to all of the suits in his little force. "We will not go charging in and fight those suits. Our job is to protect the two ships."

"What about those two?" Someone asked him, referring to Duo and Wufei.

"Worry about yourselves and not them. We will stay back with the Eternal and Musai and fight them as they get here.

As Kira finished addressing the soldiers, the alarms in the Freedom went crazy. Turning his attention back to the incoming mobile dolls, Kira witnessed as hundreds of missiles fired from the dolls and were headed straight towards them.

"Everyone, take out as many as you can!" He yelled, but he knew they couldn't even destroy have of the missiles.

All the suits fired and painted the black space with flames. Explosion after explosion lit the area. They took out most of the missiles, but some still made it through. As the pilots fought missile after missile impacted against the two ships. Fire's were started and instantly extinguished by the oxygen free space.

Once the last missile was gone, Kira took a quick glance at the two ships. Battered and torn, they were damaged, but both were able to maintain their current speed. He and the group were successfully able to protect the bridge and vital departments of both ships.

Kira pulled the Freedom back and fired his beam cannons at incoming dolls. The missiles had stopped, but the dolls had moved in close enough for mobile suit combat. As Kira dodged, he shot rapidly, no longer holding back in fear that he would kill anyone. After all, there was no one to kill in a doll. He also moved closer to the two ships, to allow the Eternal and Musai's anti-mobile suits weaponry to aid him against the vast number of dolls.

As more and more dolls moved in, Kira found himself not fighting one, but up to five or more at a time. Remembering what Duo and Wufei had told him before, the dolls had a difficult time coordinating against multiple targets. Essentially, if he added enough variables, then he could confuse the dolls, and then easy picking.

"Shinn!" Kira yelled for since Shinn was the closest mobile suit. "Meet me in the Eternal and Musai's cross fire."

Shinn acknowledged and the two suits moved themselves toward the end of the retreating ships, just of the starboard of the Eternal and the port of the Musai. In this area, anti-mobile weaponry from both ships could assist the Freedom and Destiny.

And just as Duo and Wufei had told them, the dolls became near useless. Kira went from fighting five to fighting ten then to fighting twenty and thirty along with Shinn, and was easily able to hold them off. As the dolls moved in to fight the two suits, they seemed to fire blindly. Each shot seemed to be farther away from their targets than the last. They almost weren't able to dodge attacks as easily, since they tended to get stuck in a loop. When they were fired upon from multiple attackers, they would sit still and jerk around as if they couldn't decide which way to move to dodge the attack.

Ounce the current batch of dolls was defeated Kira was allowed a chance to glance at the battlefield. As he expected, he wasn't fighting all the doll's at ounce. In fact the majority of the attacking force was staying back and firing at him from afar. They were attacking in waves of twenty to thirty, but the next incoming attack looked to be much more than that.

"Athrun were are you?" Kira asked.

After hearing a disgruntled grunt Athrun replied. "I'm busy!" Athrun however was able to send out a ping registry to inform the Freedom and the rest of the defending force of his location.

Athrun was being singled out. Kira knew the tactic the dolls were using. They were singling out the strong, and attacking Athrun in vast number. This did not allow Athrun to have any back up, and was basically forced to fight many many dolls at once all by himself.

"Don't worry, I'm coming to help you!" Kira yelled, but was interrupted by the next wave of mobile dolls attacking him. This time there appeared to be no less than fifty, twice as many as last time. As Kira moved to fight back, he could only watch as Athrun was pushed away further and further from him.

* * *

A single mobile doll moved in toward an unprotected area of the Eternal's bridge. Being one of the lucky ones, it was able to get in close undetected and it's computer had yet to experience a fatal error that could momentarily freeze the doll and allow it to be easily destroyed. As the doll moved forward to it's primary target, it still remained undetected by the many mobile suits that were circling the two ships. Perhaps the defenders were to occupied to notice the single doll, or perhaps the sensors of the two ships were damaged.

Just as the doll reached a firing position it took aim, and then it erupted into two half mobile doll sized pieces. In its place the Deathscythe stood, almost invisible in the blackness of space.

"It's about time!" Wufei yelled at Duo, as he took out another incoming doll that happened to get past the defenses. "I thought that one almost had the ship!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't recall you getting here any faster!" Duo chimed back. The two Gundams had made their way back toward the two retreating ships. Already they had racked up a large number of 'kills'.

He heard a playful laugh then Wufei spoke again. "That's because I was watching your back."

Duo smirked as he moved and took another kill. "I'm sure you couldn't keep your eyes of my back too."

"Shut up Maxwell!"

"You know I 'totally' believed you when you said you were competing against Sally at the bars. I think you just weren't in the right ones."

Duo realized that not many dolls were in his immediate area and he moved in to destroy the last two. But just as he was about to strike, the both were grabbed by two large mechanical dragon jaws and bit into pieces. The Nataku moved in between.

"Hey, those were my kills!"

"Should have got there first!" Wufei cheerfully bit back.

If anyone monitored the frequency that the two were sharing, then one would have thought that they were fighting with each other. The opposite was true. While they both traded insult with insult, it was a form of stress relief and both found it rather fun and calmed them down. They kept their minds focused on the attacks, but had just enough relief to cut down each other.

Duo rocketed forward to follow Wufei. Neither were fighting together, but they tended to stay close to each other, just in case. As they rounded the ship the next wave of attacks was just coming into view. Groups of fifty or more were moving in.

"Just like machines." Duo caught Wufei muttering.

"Pardon?"

"They calculated how many they would need to fight us during the first wave. The rest then stayed back. Now since they lost, they recalculated, and are still following the same tactic, but with more dolls. Whoever is commanding them is just letting them run their program and is using no tactical thought at all.

The dolls were now closer, and Duo no longer had to dodge long range fire. "Well, the fun has just started."

* * *

All of Athrun's attempts to return to the group had failed. With each doll that he destroys three more would replace them. His suit had taken minor damage, but was still functioning well within operating allowances. And now even more were joining the assault against him at an alarming rate.

They had successfully separated him from everyone else, and he knew his chances of surviving were very dim. Kira mention that he was coming, but even Athrun saw the attack that Kira had to fight off first, and Athrun knew Kira would be along time away.

Currently he had dwindled his group down to less than ten dolls. More were undoubtedly on the way. Now was probably his best chance to get back. As he moved back to dodge and then counterattack a doll, he saw a slight opening to maneuver his suit. It was almost too good to be true, as the dolls had not slipped up enough to reveal an opening like this yet.

As he fought and contemplated his chances, he saw that the incoming dolls were in great numbers and closer than he thought. He took his chances, and headed for the opening.

Athrun realized too late that he had been drawn in to a trap. The dolls let up a small opening hoping the Justice would take the bait, and as he moved he was hit by a beam blast. The left arm of the Justice was severed. Athrun's beam rifle was lost.

The dolls moved in to close the opening and Athrun was forced to pull back and draw his beam saber. But unfortunately, this little slip up had more drastic consequences as he was now surrounded and the justice took a hit in the back.

Kira was no longer having the easy time defending the ships as he was before. Twice the number of dolls, meant it was twice as hard to fight them off. As he and Shinn began relying on the other more and more and coordinating their attacks efficiently, they were able to hold their ground. That's not to say that they haven't taken any damage.

The contrary was true. Kira had lost nearly half of his DRAGOON's, the independently operating rifles that could detach from the wings of the Freedom. One of his hip mounted beam cannons was also knocked out, and he had run out of ammunition for his Vulcan cannons. But Kira tried his best not to think about any of it. Thinking about what resources he didn't have could get him killed right now.

After a few more minutes of fighting, a moment of peace was awarded as the incoming dolls were still a minute away. As they neared, two explosions back to back caught Kira's eye. They were far off and away from the fighting. It took Kira a moment to realize that only one suit had been drawn in that direction.

Instantly Kira zoomed in a monitor on the distant space battle, just in time to see the Justice take a third and final hit to the chest.

It was a rather smaller explosion than expected. While there was no doubt that the justice had been destroyed, amazingly the reactor didn't ignite into a burst of flames. This meant, there was no giant explosion, more of a small puff and the justice was separated into a million pieces.

Kira let his voice yell out as he spat Athrun's name. Pings for incoming dolls echoes from his radar, but he didn't care. He had just witnessed the impossible. Athrun was dead.

A sat stunned in his suit, but another blast of light brought him back to reality. This blast was huge and it nearly covered all the monitors in the Freedom. Kira looked over and got a first look at a gaping whole in the Musai.

Her anti-armor weapons had stopped firing and the vessel drifted downward almost lifeless. The shock from the explosion forced the ship to loose speed and drift downward. Her movement downward and her lose of velocity caused the Eternal to move forward, unable to aid the doomed ship.

Kira panicked and moved himself in to fight, but the dolls were no longer attacking him. They had found a better and easier target. The dolls, staying far off moved forward and a hundred plus moved in toward the Musai. They all began firing upon the ship.

Thousands of blast hit the Musai and she began to start to resemble tissue paper. Finally as one last hurrah, the ships reactors ignited and a massive explosion that dwarfed all before it covered the area of space. Electrified pink gas that is normally used to convert the ships heat energy from the reactor into electrical energy filled the area and left a pink cloud that soon dissipated.

Hundreds of life's had just been lost. Hundreds of loyal Zaft soldiers were just killed for an unjust reason. The crew of that ship had nothing to do with what was happening. They were helping out the Eternal, the undoubted true target of the attackers. The members of that ship were just innocent soldiers caught in this useless feud. And the only surviving members were the few that transferred to the Eternal or were out fighting the dolls.

Once the ship was fully destroyed, the dolls turned their attention back to the defending mobile suits and the Eternal. No longer would they fight in waves. Rather, it was determined that all of them at ounce would be more than enough.

Kira shook his head and readied himself. Trying to muffle all the screams that were coming from the radio, he was able to calm himself and take aim at the incoming enemies. However, he still caught Duo's voice over the radio.

"Our luck has just run out." Duo said.

**Please review. If all goes right I should have some concept art up (a link will be in my profile) of the new modified gundams and the ships. Probably by the time the next chapter is released. One reasons I have slowed down updateing is because I'm finding it hard to write right now. I have chapters up till twelve written, though not finalized. I can't decide if I want to add another ship into the story cause I feel I'm over crowding this with OC's already. It'd be another gunship. **

**Well tell me what you think of this chapter. Any incite would be appreciated. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Ch. 9**

Stunned Kira sat in the Freedom. Anger boiled in him as he witnessed the Musai drift downward and separate from the Eternal. He watched in horror as the said ship was fired upon by hundreds of mobile dolls, and watched in agony as the ship was torn into a million little pieces by sheer fire power in numbers by the mobile dolls. A sight like this would shake any man and force him to reconsider their priorities in life. Kira wished for nothing more than to be home with his little family. Watching the deaths of nearly two hundred friends and allies and being unable to do anything about it is stuff that nightmares are made off.

The mobile dolls which just downed the Musai turned their attention to the Eternal. They would no longer attack in waves. Rather, they all flew in at ounce. Kira in the Freedom, along with Shinn in the Destiny, Luna in the Impulse, the two natural boys in their gundams, and about three remaining zaku's (Dearka's included) are all that could support the Eternal against the vastly over numbering mobile dolls.

Kira, full of rage charged in to attack. He was fighting for other reasons now. His calm was nearly non existent. He charged the first doll in his range. After successfully destroying it he opened fire with all his weaponry, beam and ballistic alike, and took out nearly twenty or more dolls. It was most defiantly clear now that the dolls could not coordinate between each other with such large numbers. Kira could tell that the dolls were getting confused by sharing the small number of targets. As the dolls fired blindly at the defending party, they would even take out other dolls in the process.

But it wasn't all good. Kira could now easily take out many suits just as he had fought before in the past, but the number of dolls was too overwhelming.

Kira was forced to his side as the Freedom took a hit in the abdomen area. He cursed to himself. Damage appeared to be minimal, but there was no real way to tell. His gauges blared red and danger signs flashed, but he had learned in the past, that only a few gauges could be trusted in combat. After all a sensor or gauge could break, while the equipment it monitoring could be just fine. This is why Kira always instructed his students to pay minimal attention to them in combat. They weren't a reliable source of information. Kira would feel the Freedom. He could tell when the suit had a problem just by the way it functions.

But Kira quickly found out he had a problem. After clearing the nearest dolls, he moved the Freedom to engage his next target. Ounce he fired the thrusters a tremendous shake reverberated throughout the suits frame. The Freedom became nearly uncontrollable with his thrusters on. Kira immediately shut them down and let the absence of friction guide him to his enemy, but the damage gave an opening away.

Six dolls moved in and Kira found himself fighting in close combat again. He flicked on his emergency thrusters, a lighter powered thruster system used as a backup system, just in time. He flung around and blocked a beam saber from the incoming doll. He noted in the back of his mind that the emergency thrusters were indeed less powerful and the Freedoms primary thrusters, and his movement had just been cut drastically.

Kira swung back at the doll and found the Freedom performing sluggishly. As the first doll moved back, Kira saw out of the corner of his eye the second doll coming from beside him. The doll was too close to successfully block with a beam weapon or fire upon. Kira moved the Freedoms leg for a swift kick to the dolls chest. But just as the Freedom was about to make contact, the second doll moved back and the third unforeseen doll came from under and sliced the leg off of the Freedom.

Kira cursed and twisted the Freedom until the third doll was in his cross hares. Kira fired his beam rifle repeatedly at the doll, but the doll was able to avoid being hit each time. A beam blast from the forth doll hit the rifle that the Freedom was hold and it erupted, severing the left hand of the Freedom.

Kira was loosing his focus. He was fighting too many enemies. While he had the six in real close, an even larger number were staying just out of his reach and firing beam blasts at him. Kira moved to avoid being hit by the fifth doll. But as he dodged the first doll fired a beam weapon at his back. The phase shift armor was all that protected him. If he was in a lesser suit, then he would be dead.

After being hit the Freedom almost coasted away from the dolls. Kira was able to get it under control and turn the suit to face the dolls. Just his luck that they were all in the right spots. It took Kira less than a second to fire all his beam weapons and destroy the five dolls. They each ignited with a brilliant flash of light.

Kira let out a cough and slight laugh at their destruction. Relief perhaps. However, Kira was then flung forward in his seat and nearly hit the main monitor with his head. Then Kira remembered. He was fighting six dolls, not five. The sixth one got him good.

The Freedom was now in bad shape. He had one arm, two remaining dragoon units, his hip mounted beam cannons, and not much else. Sensors flashed and gauges read danger levels, but Kira this time knew they were correct. His main monitor and two smaller ones still worked, but the screens were all cracked. Two other monitors showed nothing but static, and the remaining three were just black as their electrical connections were severed. Flouting droplets of oil was seeping into the cockpit from under the seat and Kira wondered if it was hydraulic oil or coolant oil.

Kira flung the suit around. The Freedom moved twice as sluggish as before. He had maybe half of the emergency thrusters still working. The remaining limbs of the suit worked, but they moved slow and hardly lacked the power that they normally would have. Kira would have the fight with his least trusted weapons.

Kira went to activate manual control for the remaining DRAGOON units, but was again jousted around in his chair. The doll again missed hitting the cockpit, and the other leg of the Freedom was disconnected and flouted away in space.

Kira again fought the controls to keep the Freedom in place. The hit from the doll pushed the Freedom back, and it started rotating in space. Ounce Kira had it back under control, he found himself looking directly into the main camera of the sixth mobile doll. A doll with a beam saber coming down on him.

He heard that at the time of death that ones life would flash before them. Perhaps that was at the immediate time of death, for he saw no such thing. He did seem to do a lot of thinking in the few seconds. All his thoughts were of his family. His loving and adoring wife and his beautiful child. He thought that he was going to leave them. How would they cope and how would he. Could they make it out alive, or would they meat his same fate.

But as the doll moved in for the slice that would half the Freedom, it too ignited in a fiery blast. However, its antimatter reserve did not get hit. The chest blew back and mechanical parts flew into space as a person's stomach and intestines would fly out when hit with a shotgun shell to the chest. Kira relaxed his fingers and let go of the controls for his hip mounted cannons. His hip mounted ballistic cannons.

Kira then realized that he wasn't being shot at the moment. Looking to his side, he could see the Eternal, trying it's best the escape. The gracefully red ship was scorned and ripped. The wholes on the ship gave a black insight to her interiors. She looked like a leopard with all the surface damage she had, at the far distance Kira was from them. It puzzled him why no dolls were engaging him at the moment.

As he lifted his controls to head to the Eternal, he then knew why there were no dolls around him. The green suit, the Nataku stood before him. It had hardly any damage at all. Rather it just looked dirty. Wufei just kept it there, and Kira could see the remains of at least fifty mobile dolls behind the suit. Then the Nataku moved forward and was face to face with the Freedom.

"What are you doing?" Kira yelled. Wufei made no reply.

The cockpit of the Freedom then shut down. Kira was surrounded by darkness and all he could feel was the oil flouting and hitting his suit. Then the main monitor came to life with a blue screen. White text began moving from the bottom up at an unreadable speed, and Kira right then knew what was happening. The Freedom's OS appeared to be rebooting, and since this is impossible under normal circumstances, Wufei must be the cause of it.

The text stopped, and the cockpit came back to life. All the monitors and gauges read like they did a moment before. It appeared the reboot did nothing. But that wasn't the case.

"What did you do?" Kira yelled at Wufei. He moved the controls frantically, but nothing would respond. The emergency thrusters began firing on their own and the Freedom moved under its own control, without the input of the pilot.

"Wufei!"

"You'll thank me later." Was Wufei's reply. Kira screamed, scratched, and clawed as he was helpless to regain control of the suit. The main thrusters fired, and the Freedom shook horrible again, this time forcing Kira to throw up and eventually loose consciousness, as the Freedom left the battle field for some undisclosed location.

* * *

The Eternal heaved from the last blast, greater than she had heaved from any other before.

"I just lost Port side thruster control! We're drifting!" The pilot yelled. Indeed the Eternal then started to pitch aft as there was no way to counter act the moment the blast created.

Waltfelt found himself more calm than he expected to be. Perhaps he knew this was coming. He had to face the Grimm reality. The Eternal was going to be lost. Port thrusters just gave out, meaning his means to control the ship were gone. The ship really only had one main gun and itself was no longer in operable, leaving only anti missile and armor weapons. And those on the aft were no longer working. And to top it off, major systems were going off line and that included life support.

The impulse returned to the Eternal shortly after the second wave. The impulse took a good hit and Luna had been trying her best to get back out and fight. He still had those two natural boys and the Zaku piloted by Elthman, but it would not be enough. The Freedom was engaged in combat, but they hadn't heard anything from it since the Musai was taken out. He heard Duo mutter something earlier about a loosing battle, but then he didn't give it much thought. Now Waltfeld knew exactly what Duo was talking about and Waltfeld couldn't agree more.

Waltfeld stood up from his chair. All eyes on the bridge were on him. He stepped away from it and made his way to Lacus's seat right behind his. The vessel shook and he missed on step, but he easily regained it.

Lacus was at her place on the bridged, dressed in a newer combat Gee than she had in the past. She stayed at her place on the bridge giving out orders the best that she could, but she wasn't a trained tactician. While she never got in the way, she knew what she could and couldn't do. And right now there was nothing she could do.

Waltfeld gave Lacus a frown that conveyed his sorrow for failing her. Lacus just stared at him blankly, and for the first time did not know what to say.

Waltfeld cleared his throat and turned to the CIC. He then ordered calmly. "Meyrin, signal to abandon ship. Tell everyone to get to escape pods and leave the as soon as they can. They knew the procedures."

All was quiet on the bridge as the crew let that last order sink in. All that was heard was a soft "Aye" from Meyrin. Then after a minute as if she was thinking about how to say it, she signaled the abandoned ship.

Waltfeld turned back to Lacus. "You need to hurry."

"But commander…."

"Lacus, you need to leave now. There is no talking back. Just go." Waltfeld turned his back to her and held his head in shame. Lacus remained silent. She then slipped out of her seat and went out the door without making a sound. Waltfeld turned to the rest of the bridge crew just staring at him. Meyrin recorded her message and had it looping thought out the ship, she however did not leave her station.

"That mean you all too."

"But Sir…"

"GO!" Andrew yelled. The crew hesitantly moved from their stations and left. It wasn't long and the only people remaining were Andrew and Decosta.

"Decosta leave." Andrew Waltfeld ordered.

He heard a sigh and Decosta moved closer, taking the side of Andrew. "I'm sorry Sir, but I just can't do that."

"You're wasting your time."

"It's my decision." Decosta was always Waltfeld right hand man. Whenever Andrew needed anything, Decosta was always there. Andrew wanted the boy to leave, but he felt calm while he was there.

They stood still in silence. They watched as lifeboats began exiting from their holds on the ship. Finally Andrew spoke. "You know, I think I'm beginning to like the Columbian style brews more and more. What do you think?"

By now the last of the life boats had jettisoned. The dolls pulled back and ceased firing on the downed ship. Rather the mother ship, the massive cylindrical vessel moved in and was now just atop of the Eternal. "In truth Sir. They don't suit me very well. I like the old American style with some rich vanilla creamer."

"You can't drink coffee with creamer and be a man. It's black. It always has to black."

"But don't you want something just a little bit different sometimes, Sir?"

"If I add anything it would be straight milk." The massive vessel fired upon the Eternal one blast at a time. It was savoring the defeat as the first blast took out a portion of the vessel, and then the next blast took out another small portion and they continued heading toward the other side of the ship. It reminded Waltfeld of a time when he was a boy visiting earth and it began to rain. The wind was barely moving when the rain started and he rushed out to the street to see it. Where he stood was dry while the rain fell on the other side of the road and slowly but surely made its way toward him until he was just as wet as the other side was.

"To be honest Sir," Decosta continued. "I always preferred Tea."

Andrew shook his head. Under normal circumstances he may have ordered the kid off the bridge. But rather he put his hands behind his back and just sighed. "People never cease to surprise me."

With his final words the massive vessel fired upon the Eternal's bridge incinerating everything within.

* * *

"Sir, both the Eternal and Musai had been destroyed." Desdin said.

Captain Drew of the Gunship Monitor smiled at his achievement. His ship already had the most combat hours of any other in its class. "I can see that. Where is Borodin?"

"Cairo is off our port bow. She'll be here in a few minutes. Sir if I may ask. Any ideas why the Cairo is here?"

Drew shook his head. "No idea. It's odd. Borodin rarely makes contact with any other vessels. He is always too involved with his mission. If he wants to talk then it must be important."

"And lastly Sir. What of the survivors?"

Drew looked out his view screen and saw all the escape pods from the Eternal scattered out in space. "No one can know of this ships existence. Kill them all."

* * *

It was quiet inside the escape pods. The life boats as they were also called carried only minimal electronics and radios. No one spoke. All retained their peace.

Every now and then the life boat would shake from a nearby impact. The people would hold on to their seats, but they had no protection. Nothing in the escape pod could protect them from the mobile dolls.

Kelly in her specially made space suit held on to her mother for dear life. The gripped tighter and tighter each time the pod shook. "Mommy, I'm scared." The girl muttered.

Lacus looked at her and could tell the girl was terrified. She wasn't crying, but tears were beginning to threaten. "Don't be scared. We'll be okay."

"I want Daddy." Now she was crying. Lacus held the girl and started patting her on the back. It took all of Lacus's might to not do the same as Kelly.

The shaking became more violent. The battle with the dolls was now very close to them. It then became almost none stop. The pod shook and shook again. Then it shook stronger than it had ever before, and Lacus knew that the last one was the dying cry of the Eternal.

Kelly gripped even tighter than Lacus knew that the girl could. The shaking stopped for a moment, but then started up again. It felt that the suits and dolls were fighting right on the other side of the quarter meter thick hull.

Lacus then started to sing. "In this quiet night….I'm waiting for you…"

Her daughter did not loosen, but gripped tighter. Mentally she rationalized singing to calm Kelly down, but deep down it was to calm herself down. Lacus grabbed the girl tighter as well. "So…hold me close…"

And then the pod shook violently as it did before. No it was even stronger. Some of the people in the pod were flung from their seats and the pod itself seemed to take damage from this one. This interrupted Lacus's singing and she held on to her daughter as hard as she possibly could. But after waiting for what felt like minutes, all remained quiet. There were no more shakes in the pod or movement of any kind. It was as if the fight just suddenly ended.

* * *

Shinn twice witnessed the unbelievable. His own ship that he was in command of, the Musai was taken out, and then the Eternal of all vessel was also destroyed. He was in a frantic about that one. It was unthinkable that that ship could be destroyed. Luna returned to the Eternal after the Impulse took a hit. Meyrin was on that ship two. The only people who were his family were on that ship.

But he couldn't think of that now if he even wanted to. Unlike before, he was close to the Eternal when she went down. He was near it as the massive cylindrical ship moved in and took the Eternal out with it's own guns. But in all this time, the mobile dolls did not relent.

He tried to attack the large vessel. To do anything to cause damage to the ship. But the ships defenses were massive. Hundreds of not thousands of anti-armor weaponry bombarded him, and that was only from the belly of the ship. All he could do to survive was pull back. Attacking that ship was suicide, even for the best and strongest mobile suits.

Earlier on, around the time the Musai went down, Kira and he were separated. Elthsman was a good pilot, but there was only so much he could do in that Zaku of his. Never the less, Elthsman and Shinn double teamed the dolls and thus far had not been separated or have not died yet. Shinn had no idea where Duo and Wufei were.

He moved forward at the same time Dearka did. They both fired right behind each others backs, and took out two mobile dolls that were chasing them. Ounce these dolls were destroyed Shinn turned to the nearest incoming dolls. There were still hundreds of them. It was now that Shinn saw it. Another vessel far away. It was very distant, but it was another one of the large cylindrical shaped vessels. He about had a heart attack. There were two of these ships at least, and he was about to take them both on. And he couldn't even get close to one.

Shinn, fighting every urge in his body to just give up and let the dolls take his life, turned back to the incoming dolls. He slammed the controls forward only for the Destiny to move and then nearly die in place.

Shinn began panicking ounce the large red letters returned to his view screen. "REACTOR FAILURE" it read.

* * *

"Sir, the Cairo is not responding to hails." Desdin said with a little bit of concern in his voice.

"What?" Captain Drew asked.

"I'm looking at what appears to be a massive energy build up within her hull."

Drew got up from his chair and looked at the information screen at the CIC terminal. "That's his Genesis! He's going to fire the Genesis at the survivors!"

Why would Borodin fire the Genesis at an enemy that had already lost. Drew was now just destroying the loose ends.

"Uhh…Sir!" Desdin now had panic in his voice. "I don't think he is going to shoot the Genesis at them."

"What do you mean?"

"It looks like he is aiming for us."

Drew quickly adjusted the main viewer to look upon the Cairo. Sure enough Drew changed the screen just in time to see the power Genesis beam leave the Gunship.

"Borodin, you..."

* * *

Normally, if Duo didn't have anything to worry about than he would be enjoying himself. After all, in his last war the most fun he had was the fighting. That's probably not a good trait he thought. Sure he witnessed the destruction of the Eternal and the Musai. He even got an earful from Shinn, at telling a near joke when the Musai went down, but he couldn't help it. It was a defense mechanism. It stopped him from panicking.

Sure he was worried about the people on board the ships. 'Some' more than others admittedly. Okay, maybe one more than any other, but he was generally worried. If there was just one thing about fighting he knew, than it would be to never think of your losses until after the battle. Worrying about Meyrin and Mrs. Yamato right now would be pointless. Let the battle end, and then Duo could worry about them.

Duo kept his cool and had not really even received any damage to the Deathscythe. He wished he had more time to educate the other pilots on how to fight the dolls, but you can't teach them everything within a few hours. It took him years to find all the weaknesses in the dolls. Duo did the best he could and had already whipped up a staggering 127 doll kills today by his last count. However Wufei was boasting of a surplus of 150.

It wasn't until he saw the mobile dolls fire upon the escape pods and begin systematically destroying them. That made him angry. His enemy was out to kill all of them. While the Deathscythe had plenty of fight left in it, maybe enough to destroy all the dolls with Wufei's help, Duo doubted he could successfully protect all the escape pods. Maybe not even one with this number of dolls. And only a fool would think that the Deathscythe even had a chance against that massive ship.

He then saw the other vessel. It was another massive ship like the one attacking them. It came in from a perpendicular angle to the battle and by this time the first massive ship began pulling away. Duo was about to finally realize that all hope was lost, but than he saw something he didn't expect.

The hull of the second massive ship glowed bright blue. Duo had to adjust his eyes, but he than realized that it was a high beam charge up. He watched as the beam cut through space and devoured the first ship. It erupted in one massive explosion. The shear power of the explosion forced the Deathscythe back. The mobile dolls ceased to function without a mother computer controlling them.

Duo eyes went wide and he couldn't believe it. He had no idea what was going on. Why he was saved? Could they be here to help?

* * *

"Confirmed Sir, complete destruction." Ivan's voice filled the near empty bridge. The Cairo was functioning on a crew small and thus Borodin was accompanied by only a few of his hand picked officers on the bridge.

Borodin leaned back in his chair. The destruction of the Monitor should not be as satisfying as it is. There is no thrill or honor in destroying a ship this way, but since he removed the entire crew he had before, and replaced them with a much smaller crew of hand picked people, he couldn't take chances. He didn't have enough hands on board to repair the ship if it is damaged too badly. So for now, he would have to rely on his comrade's blind trust in him untill Romafellar truly found out what he was doing.

"The mobile dolls?" Borodin asked Ivan.

"They have stopped functioning."

"Survivors?"

"None from the Monitor. We have a few remaining escape pods from the two downed ships and a couple of surviving mobile suits."

Borodin rubbed his chin. The Monitor wouldn't have escape pods. If an Ironclad went down, than nobody should live to be interrogated about it. That was Romafellar's thinking in their creation. However, even if there were escape pods, none of them could have survived the massive blast from the Cairo's genesis. But, some of the wreckage from the two downed ships looked very familiar.

"Give me an overview on the remaining suits."

Ivan took a moment. As Borodin waited for him to answer it looked like Ivan couldn't believe what the computer was telling him. "I have one Zaku and a custom suit which looks to be a derivative of an X42S. That's all the radar can pick up, but I can visually identify two other mobile suits."

Back in the first valentine war the EA had built a suit that could evade radar. The Blitz he thought it was called. While the technology proved to be unstable for the suit, it proved to be perfect for disguising a ship. Borodin spent a lot of time hunting those invisible ships. So the thought of a mobile suit that couldn't be detected by radar wasn't necessarily surprising. What was surprising was the shade of red in the wreckage that Borodin just recognized. Only the former chairwoman would want a ship painted that color.

"Ivan, can you confirm for me that one of the destroyed ships is the Eternal."

Ivan looked confused for a moment but did a scan as Borodin requested. "I can confirm it Sir. I have an intact registry number on one piece."

"Is the Freedom or the Justice among the wreckage?"

Again it took Ivan a moment to search the area before confirming. "Yes Sir. I have the remains of the Justice. The Freedom is not here though."

Borodin didn't realize that he was holding his breathe. So maybe the Freedoms pilot, Admiral Yamato, wasn't with the Eternal when she went down. Maybe the family wasn't there. Borodin hoped that even if they were that they were alive. They were nice people and he rather liked them.

The justice could be valuable though. General Zala was the pilot. Chances of him being alive were near nil, but after looking at the wreckage the main section encasing the cockpit was intact. Even still, the information on the computer could be valuable. Or perhaps a repaired Justice could be very influential among other Zaft ships.

Borodin shook his head and smiled. All dreams. He had no need for a repair Justice. He didn't need the influence for his plan. But still, the secrets in its computer could be valuable.

"Ivan, issue command override 113798 on those dolls. Have them board the Cairo and ounce they do change the pass codes so Romafellar can't control them again. Then put them on stand bye with our own dolls. The more we have the better."

"Aye Sir."

"Also, have the nearest ones pick up the remains of the Justice and bring that aboard. You reckon it's salvageable?"

Ivan shook his head. "Can't tell from here Sir."

Ivan issued the command and Borodin watched as the dolls retreated from their positions and headed for the docking bays of the Cairo The ones that were ordered brought the Justice.

"Sir. What about the survivors? They are hailing us." Ivan told Borodin.

Borodin looked out among them. No doubt they were confused and scared.

"One of the suits is moving towards us. I think it is attempting to make contact."

The suit was black and had devil wings. It was a ways away for sure. Borodin got out of his chair and walked closer to the view screen. "Lock target on the escape pods and fire a single NTAP."

"Yes Sir." Ivan replied. There was no hesitation. No question of Borodin's order. Just trust in it's purest form.

NTAP stood for Nuclear Tactile Artillery Percusion. Basically a nuclear warhead that was fired from a cannon. Since it was fired from a cannon and not self propelled, it was exempt from treaties, and though a high yield nuclear weapon, since it wasn't self propelled it avoided being classified as a weapon of mass destruction. They existed in a loop hole that the Zaft military took advantage off. Publicly these did not exist, but it was foolish to believe that no Zaft vessel ever carried one during the last two wars. In reality, every vessel with a second degree captain rank or admiral was armed with up to ten of them. They however were never used during those wars.

Borodin watched the black devil suit retreat ounce the warhead was fired. When the warhead was about halfway to it's target, Borodin ordered for its detonation. It ignited with a huge explosion and ounce again this area of space was lit up with light.

The other suits grabbed the escape pods and began to slowly move away. The NTAP sent the message Borodin wanted and the survivors understood it perfectly clear. We are not your friends. Stay well enough away.

"Ivan, I want you to send a message to the surviving ships. Send them instructions to head to coordinated 806.112743. Put the terminal insignia on it."

"Sir, those coordinates are for the manufacturing bases of…"

"I'm well aware Ivan. If we're lucky than the person that I think was on the Eternal survived and she'll know what to do ounce she sees it."

"Will this interfere with the plan?"

Borodin shook his head. "No. Not at all. If anything than she could help us."

"Than do you want to send aid?"

"As I said Ivan, it doesn't matter. They wont interfere either way. If they survive than it's good for the people of the plants. If not than it makes little difference."

"Aye, Sir. I'll send the transmission."

Borodin smiled as he started to leave the bridge. "Okay, once your done, lets head for the next one. I'm going to rest for the next couple of hours."

* * *

It was starting to get cold. The Deathscythe was running on minimal power, but Duo was beginning to think that the heater may be broken. But he didn't have the heart to complain about it. After all, he was still a lot more comfortable in the Deathscythe than anyone in the escape pods. It had to be near freezing in those.

There has only been a little bit of talking since everything happened. Ounce the first vessel was destroyed and the dolls retreated to the second vessel, Duo tried to contact the captain of the second ship. He was hoping for some help. But the captain launched and prematurely detonated a nuclear warhead. This told Duo top stay away and not to mess with this guy.

The only dialogue after that was between the remaining three suits. The Deathscythe, Altron, and one damaged Zaku piloted by Elthsman, would coordinate between each other look out for incoming ships and to manage the positions of the escape pods. The Destiny having lost all power in its small backup batteries was abandoned by Shinn who opted to enter one of the escape pods. He went to the one that Luna was in. It had been like this for half of a day now.

And since the escape pods lacked a proper radio, they just sat silent. Duo had no idea who all was alive and who was not. That was the fact that probably bugged him the most.

"Maxwell, we've got incoming." It was Wufei.

Duo flung the Deathscythe around and met Wufei to see. A white ship began to grow bigger and bigger. After a few minutes of watching it Duo realized he had seen the ship before. Sure the color was different, but it was the Eternal. Or rather an Eternal class ship.

He watched a mobile suit launch from the ships bay. The ship and suit took no threatening action. Rather it looked as if it was coming to meet them.

"Should we fire at it?" it was Elthsman who asked. His Zaku's beam rifle was trained on the incoming suit. Duo doubted that the Zaku even had enough energy in it's batteries to fire a blast strong enough to destroy an incoming suit.

"No." Wufei flatly told Dearka.

Duo squinted his eyes to try to make out the type of suit coming. But he shot his eyes wide when he realized who it was.

"Trowa!" He nearly yelled. Now the Deathscythe, Altron, and Heavyarm gundams had been reunited. The team was over half assembled.

**Well please review. Wasn't able to get any art up, but will soon. Graduate next week, so I'm kind of focusing on that right now. Well tell me what you think. Story is about to take a turn, and this about the lowest point it can get for our cast. Till next time. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Ch. 10**

To say that the Archangel was having a hard time, was an understatement. They had a moment to rest from the fighting after they left Orb, but it didn't take the enemy long to discover them and it has been none stop bombardment since. Her complement of remaining mobile suits was down to four, the white suit piloted by Zech's, Mwu in the Akatsuki and two surviving Astay's. She had lost two other Astrays in the fighting since they left, and from the sounds of General Peacecraft, his suit maybe in need of some maintenance and re-equipment.

The doll's kept coming from the sky above them. In fact they were traveling through earth's atmosphere and attacking in waves. A ship, Murrue deduced, must be orbiting and launching the attacks against the Archangel. Since they were putting so much effort into destroying the Archangel, that must mean they view the ship as very important.

They took damage during the battle of Orb. Not too much damage to hinder the main functions of the ship, but enough to cause problems. In the first fight an electrical connection from the command bridge to the port side batteries was damaged. It was an easy fix and Mr. Murdock got it done in less than half the time it should have taken. However it still left that side of the ship open, and the port was riddled with anti armor fire until the repairs were completed.

With the amount of damage done to the port side, the Archangel couldn't pressurize decks on that side of the ship. This meant she couldn't submerse herself underwater. Doing so with the amount of damage that she has now, too much water would enter and the ship would sink. She could float on the water though, and she had been doing so.

Murrue shuffled around in her chair as another doll erupted near her ship. The Archangel shuddered. General Peacecraft was completely able to fight the dolls on by himself. The other pilot's had to work as a team and Zech's instructed them to do so. Mwu in his Akatsuki, took charge of the other two, Kia and a boy named Nelson. They coordinated their attacks together and were destroying nearly as many dolls as Zechs was.

The Archangel was nearing the coordinates that Noin and Zech's had given them. It wasn't far from the islands of Orb. Just a day's trip. The Archangel floated down a straight with tropical tree's on either side. The place they were going was in a rain forest, surrounded by tree's that were hundreds of meters tall. They provided the perfect camouflage from orbiting satellites and whatever ship was launching the mobile dolls at them.

However, in the last hour the attacks had been coming stronger and more frequent. Twice as many dolls were now jumping into the fight, and her mobile suits were starting to be overwhelmed.

Murrue turned to Noin. "We're almost there. What is the plan."

Noin who had taken the position of the battle commander sat in the same seat that was originally occupied by Natarle in the first bloody valentine war. "Don't worry captain, we'll make it. Just a little more."

Murrue really wanted to believe the girl. Murrue had trusted the girl for some time now, but looking at the damage reports and the constant bombardments, Murrue was having her doubts.

The Archangel moved itself into the mouth of the river hoping to evade the oncoming enemies.

* * *

Kia pulled back on the joystick of her Astray. The suit moved backwards as ordered and she barely dodged a beam blast. "Nelson, NOW!" She yelled over the com.

Nelson then fired a controlled burst from his suit's rifle and obliterated the mobile doll. This was the tactic that they had been using. One of the suits would move to draw the fire of a doll. Ounce that doll focused all attention on the first suit, a second suit piloted by Nelson, or a third piloted by Mwu would destroy the attacking doll. It was a tactic that seemed to be working well, but it was slow going.

Every now and then Kia would ketch a glance at General Peacecraft dancing in the sky and destroying doll after doll with ease. He was able to move his mobile suit unlike anyone that Kia had ever seen before. He was graceful in his piloted, yet ruthless in combat.

The Archangel was almost to the forested area. She was nearing the tip of a river. Everyone said that the ship would be safe ounce there, but Kia didn't believe them. Sure, this deep in a forest and the forest itself could hide the ship, but that didn't stop enemies from coming for them.

A doll moved in for an attack against her. She moved to dodge, but an explosion to her side shook her suit madly. Mechanical pieces and armor flew in all directions and the iconic orange paint that donned the parts was obvious.

"Nelson!" she screamed as the burning wreckage of an Astray fell to the ground.

She flew forward in her seat as a doll rammed itself against her back. She cursed to herself, knowing if it was a beam attack then she would be dead. More dolls circled around her. She closed her eyes awaiting the inevitable.

Explosion shock her Astray around, but then all became quiet. She opened her eyes to only be accompanied by the beeping of controls from her cockpit and the remains of the mobile dolls.

* * *

Murrue as awe struck. Another mobile suit came out of the forest and protected the remaining Astray and Akatsuki. The suit flew around and battled the dolls with the same ease that General Peacecraft fought with.

The suit was one of the oddest ones she had ever seen. Painted in deep shades of white, black, and purple; the armor appeared to be made out of some rough rocky type of metal. A tan cape protruded from the back of the suit and the design made it look like an Arabian warrior. But the single most striking feature of the suit was the twin swords it had. They were nearly as tall as the suit and curved to look like a sickle. They weren't beam sabers, but rather glowed red hot. When ever the sickles sliced an enemy doll, the sword more of melted it's way through.

"Maam, we're receiving a transmission from that suit." Miriallia called out on the bridge. Murrue nodded her head for Miriallia to put it through.

A young European man with some Arabic features displayed on the screen. He had blonde hair that was almost pure white. Before the boy could speak Noin called out his name. "Quatra!" She said.

"Archangel, I am Quatra Rebarba Winner. Return your mobile suits to their hangers and well escort you to our base." The boy on the screen said.

Murrue almost yelled out in protest. Return her three mobile suits to the ship? They were still under attack. The attacks were so consistent that she couldn't even stand up on the bridge..

But just as she was about to refuse, weapons fire hidden within the forest covered the sky, and mobile dolls began dropping like flies. Then strange, rugged and plain ugly mobile suits moved out and provided cover fire for the retreating ship.

"I told you not to worry Captain." Noin said. She was now standing besides Murrue and the two watched the dolls be obliterated. "They are called the Marqunac Corp. And they are among the finest mobile suit forces you will ever see."

Realizing that these people were the ones they were retreating back into the forest too, she quickly called her three suit back to the ship. The Astray being piloted by Kia came first, then the Akatsuki with Mwu was next. Last was Zech's who seemed very hesitant to return.

After calming down Murrue sighed and unbuckled her seat belt. The Archangel was then led into a tunnel cut in a mountain that was hidden behind a massive water fall. She hoped wherever they were being taken will have some answers to her questions.

* * *

The Archangel was finally anchored in a repair bay just barely large enough to fit the ship. Ounce there the main officers, this included most of the bridge crew along with Mwu, Zechs and Cagalli, left the ship to meat with the man who just saved them. Repair crews from the Archangel moved outside to repair the hull and where joined by repair crews from the base.

Ounce off the ship Murrue was finally able to get a look at the damage. Murdoch never made it sound as bad as it looked. The port side looked like Swiss cheese. Many holes were ripped into the ship and it was a wonder that the ship could even stay afloat. Most of the damage was on the port side, which had two of its main thrusters knocked out. Murrue sighed as she looked over her ship. You could say that the ship was now a part of her. It was special and Murrue always looked at it like a mother to her child. It saddened her to see it in this shape. Murrue felt as if she had failed her.

The Archangel always had special treatment within the Orb navy. She was the only ship that kept a permanent captain who was allowed to hand pick her own crew. The ship also operated outside of the Navy, meaning that the ship and her captain could not be ordered around from anyone less than representative Atha or one of her most trusted General such as Peacecraft. But even Zech's and Noin who outranked Murrue, wouldn't take over the ship. The Archangel was special, and only Murrue was allowed to command it.

By this time a boy around Cagalli's age appeared. He was a mix of Caucasian and Arab. Kind of like what Dearka was. In fact, both of them had the same unusual blonde hair. Murrue recognized him as the boy piloting the weird suit. "It's good to see you Noin and Zechs." He said.

He and Zech's both shook hands. "I take it my men were no trouble."

"Not at all Quatra." Noin moved herself to greet him.

Quatra left the two and made his way Cagalli. "I take it you are Ms. Cagalli Yula Atha. Am I right?"

Cagalli shook his hand as well. "Yes." She answered stern. She was hardly in a mood to talk. She just lost her country plus Kisaka was uncomfortably close to her. Cagalli wasn't too big of an idiot. She knew she was on suicide watch.

"Well nice to finally meet you. I am Quatra Rebarba Winner. I am the leader of the Maganac Corp." He was surprisingly cheerful. "If you come this way," Quatra held out his hands, "We have yet to get your accommodations ready, but at least we can have a cup of coffee and talk."

The Archangel crew followed Quatra into a room that was made purely of metal. The room was painted in a desert tan color, and was chipped, and rusted. In it sat a large table, a coffee machine, and a large screen accompanied by a projector. The room seemed to be a briefing room. A single window was in the room and it looked out onto a mobile suit hanger that had just one suit. It was the suit that the boy piloted.

Mwu came forward and spoke. "So does anyone know why they attacked us? Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling that three people here do." His eyes had contact with Zechs, Noin, and Quatra.

"Orb's political power is too great. Your influence in the last two wars was too big of a threat for whatever their plan is. So they simply destroyed you." Quatra was talking in a serious tone now. "The mainland as you all know was not their first target. With the loss of White Base, Orb has lost all military power in outer space."

"What are you saying? We never had a strong presence in space so why attack it?"

Zechs answered the question. "White Base is in a very strategic position. They can attack any nation in Europe and most of Asia. They can also easily intercept any ships or missiles leaving any of those nations."

"Anyways," Quatra continued, "Within a day they had severely crippled the Three Ship Alliance. It was luck that the Archangel was able to get away." Quatra paused to take a sip. "You're not the only ones. Many nations of the previous Alliance have also been attacked. Romafellar is strategically picking targets that can rally people against them."

Quatra put his cup down. "I have fought Romafeller before. I know this style of fighting. It's just as much a political battle as it is a physical one. But I don't know exactly what they are planning."

"So it's Zaft?" Cagalli asked.

"Yes and no. Romafellar is the controlling party of Zaft right now. But these attacks by mobile dolls aren't limited to nations on earth. They have also been attacking Zaft trading routes." Quatra looked at his watch.

Quatra moved to a filing cabinet in the corner, pulled out a sheet of paper, and let the crew look it over. "I don't know if you have seen this, but these people are apparent members of a new faction called the Zaft liberation society. I'm sure you know some of the names of the people on it. They are the ones being blamed for the attack."

The Archangel crew passed the papers around. Immediately they recognized many of the people on the list. Athrun Zala and Shinn Asuka stood out. Quatra went on, "In the peoples eyes, Romafellar is nothing more than a political party in the Zaft government. They perceive Zaft as the good guys. Romafellar has done a real good job of hiding the fact that they are the ones orchestrating the attacks. In fact, the only reason we know it is Romafellar is because of the dolls. There is no visible connection between Romafellar and these attackers."

"So, are we sure this Romafellar is behind this?" Murrue asked. She didn't live in the Plants, so she was not familiar with the political parties, but it was a name of the enemy. And apparently these people have great knowledge of Romafellar.

Quatra was about to speak up, but Zech's beat him to it. "I'm positive that Romafellar is behind this. But, we have no proof."

"And without proof, we have no way of refuting anything that chairman Himler or Zaft says." Noin added.

The crew remained silent. They were staring to see what was really happening. Romafellar is relatively unknown past the political party. Thus their technology would be unrecognizable by most people. Then the people who could recognize the technology or had any power to stand in Romafellars way, was labeled as a member of the Zaft Liberation Society and traitors. Of course Romafellar wasn't stupid when it came to this. Most people on the list were members of the former Clyne faction, a group of people who twice had betrayed the government, so it was easy for the mass of people to believe that the Zaft Liberation Society was true.

"I'm still confused." It was Mwu. "I get that they declared war and whipped out Orb, and I get that they are blaming their enemies for it so the people still think that Romafellar and Zaft are the good guys. But I still don't know what is going on. I mean, why?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. All I can speculate is that they are after power, because Orb is not the only country that has been attacked."

This was news to the crew. Because of all the fighting that they had been through, they really did not keep up with what was going on outside of Orb.

"While no country has been sacked like Orb, major military installations of more that twenty countries has been attacked. The ones that the news keeps mentioning is the Atlantic and Eurasian federations. Apparently the battles there have been really bloody with a high loss of life. Every place that they have attacked, with the exception of Orb of course, could have launched a counter attack against White Base."

"So now those countries will be weeks if not months away from retaliating." Mwu said. The mobile dolls were successful in conducting surprise attacks against all known bases that could launch ships and mobile suits into space. This meant it would take a lot of precious time for these countries to fight back. Any missile or similar strike would easily be shot down by the now heavily protected White Base. These countries offensive fighting capabilities were taken away and they were forced onto defense.

"And in doing so, Zaft has not only given the enemy a name, but also a face now." According to the media, the Zaft Liberation Society headquartered themselves on the taken White Base. "That's not all. They are also attacking Zaft."

Again the crew of the Archangel was surprised. As Quatra went on to explain, Zaft bases were also attacked, though they were labeled as terrorist attacks. Reportedly the battles were just as intense, but the damage had so far been minor, and Zaft was able to fight them off every time. But why would Romafellar attack themselves? They were weakening themselves.

Then it hit Murrue like a brick wall. It couldn't be so obvious. "They're rallying the people."

Everyone turned to her to allow herself to elaborate. "Romafellar is rallying all the nations together against the Zaft Liberation Society. And since Zaft/Romafellar is the only country that can fight off the dolls, the earth nations will rally behind Zaft."

Quatra joined her in her revelation. "That's exactly what I was thinking. There using the Zaft Liberation Society to unify the earth countries against a single enemy. And once unified, Romafellar will be in control of them."

After a moment of silence Mwu spoke. "So the way I see it. There is nothing we can do here. We have to get into space."

"I agree. Romafellar is in space. Any evidence that we need will also be in space." Zechs said. "Has there been any contact with anyone in space. Be it terminal or Clyne faction?"

"Zaft is strictly monitoring all communications to the plants. No message from the Clyne faction either. Terminal has been mainly silent except for one transmission." Quatra said. He pulled out another piece of paper from the filing cabinet. On the paper was list of numbers. "It's a set of coordinates in deep space. The encryption checks out. It was defiantly sent by Terminal."

"Were are the coordinates for?"

"It's in deep space. We checked it out using a telescope but all we were able to see was a giant rock sitting there. It looked like it could be man made, but we weren't able to ascertain any significance by just looking at it. We are not set up to repair your ship. We have neither the technology nor knowledge. But we do have the capabilities to launch it into space."

"So the proof we may need could be there. It's our best bet." Murrue said. "You have a mass driver? Here in this jungle?"

"No. We don't have a mass driver, but we do have boosters that can attach to your ship. Kind of an archaic and inefficient way of heading into space, but we can get your ship there. It will take about half a day to fit them to your ship. If you're willing."

* * *

Duo carefully piloted the Deathscythe into the white ships hanger. The Destiny whose reactor again failed was towed into the ship by the Deathcythe. Since the suit received a second reactor failure it was doubtful that the suit could function again without a new reactor. And it looked like that could be along time away.

In the battle the Impulse was damage and eventually lost when the Eternal was destroyed. The Freedom and the Justice, two suits known for being among the best ever made were lost as well. They had one Zaku that was piloted by Elthsman, but itself took a great deal of damage and they simply couldn't rely on it. That left only Duo in his Deathscythe, Wufei in the Altron, and now Trowa with the Heavyarms.

The hanger was incredibly crowded. The ship which appeared to be the same class of vessel as the Eternal seemed to be converted to a transport vessel. Instead of a mobile suit launch and retrieval pad, the ships hanger was elongated and was full of metal crates of whatever the ship was transporting. There was no mechanic bay for the suits. The space was there and it existed at one point, but rather it was modified to house more goods for transport.

Duo got the Destiny in place, he moved the Deathscythe into its own position. Ounce all the mobile suits were in place, the hanger was cleared to allow the escape pods to dock. Duo left the Deathscythe to help the incoming survivors.

It was incredibly morbid. There were a few people who gave a thank you, but most people did not speak unless they were forced. Survivors from both the Musai and the Eternal mingled together and able men helped other survivors out.

It was surprising to Duo and nearly all the survivors, that they were not met by any of the ships crew. The ship appeared to be vacant. Kind of like a ghost ship.

As if on cue Shinn took charge and ordered some men to go the mess hall and get drinks and food to feed everybody. Despite that Luna had yet to be recovered if alive, Shinn still kept a strong facade and looked to be in more control than everybody else.

There was very little room in the ship. There was only room for one escape pod to enter at a time. Once an escape pod was empty of all occupants it was jettisoned into space to make room for the next escape pod. This was procedure for the couple of hours it took to get all the survivors aboard.

It was after the first escape pod that Trowa left the confides of his suit and met with the other two G-boys. He had matured a great deal. As Duo had known, Trowa was now married and was pretty close to settling down with his new life. If only this hadn't happened.

"Well, you're looking good Trowa." Duo snickered as they waited for the next pod to land.

"Case keeps me in shape. How about you? It's been three years since I have seen everybody."

"Well you know. Just lost my house, but I was never too found of those. Deathscythe was in excellent shape. I have to thank you for that."

Death and fear was a commodity with these boys growing up. Both had nothing as children, so the loss of what they had didn't phase them much. Over time the boys had learned to not think about the bad things. Sure Duo feared for his friends and now for Meyrin, but he had been trained to not let his feelings get in the way of his job. There was no time for mourning. If he ever cried, he did it alone and away from people. Some would say that Duo still being cheerful despite all that had just happened was being ignorant and cold blooded. And it appeared that way. But rather it was defense mechanism. It kept him sane.

However, there were no more words for the boys to speak to each other. They stood in silence until the next pod entered and then the next.

There were many more survivors from the Eternal than the Musai. The Musai never jettisoned any escape pods. As people exited the pods, most helped with the other incoming survivors, or realized that this ship was undermanned. Trowa had a brief introduction to Shinn, requested that if technicians were recovered that they head to the engine room. In fact, since this was the Eternity was the same class as the Eternal, most people would be taking up the exact position they had on the previous ship.

Once most of the pods had been recovered, Duo saw a glimmer of cheer in Shinn's eye as Shinn opened the next pod. He watched as Lunamaria Hawk jumped out and embraced the young pilot. The two broke gravity and floated in space while embracing one another. Duo took over for Shinn and retrieved the other survivors in the pod, who were mainly the mobile suit technicians.

* * *

The last escape pod to be recovered carried the Eternals bridge crew. As the people left the pod they said nothing and seemed to be even more depressed than all the other survivors. He helped Ms. Clyne out first along with her daughter Kelly. As the other survivors helped, Duo could hear a sigh of relief ounce she was recovered. Many people still thought very highly of her.

The women were removed first and it was Duo's turned to breathe a sigh of relief as Meyrin was removed. Once out she looked at him as if she was surprised that he was alive. Tears began to flow and Duo embraced her. He comforted her as Wufei and Trowa took charge of the rest of the survivors.

The last pod was jettisoned into space and the survivors went to the same posts they occupied while on the Eternal. There was no time for grief or rest at the moment. This ship was undermanned and in desperate need of a crew.

Duo, Trowa, and Wufei accompanied the bridge crew of the Eternal as they headed towards the bridge of the Eternity. As they walked they noticed many differences between this ship and the Eternal.

This ship carried only a minimal number of weapons. Her hull which was painted an almost pure white was nearly devoid of any military weaponry or defensive systems. While she did have one cannon and some anti missile defenses, this ship was mainly unarmed. Instead, her hull was modified into a military transport and the ship was stocked full of boxes waiting for a delivery that will never happen.

But Lacus was able to see remnants of the life it was originally meant to have. While the Eternal was the first of her class and designed from the beginning as a military ship, the half finished Eternity at the time was going to serve a more diplomatic life. While it was originally going to still be a war ship with all the capabilities as the Eternal, she was also going to be a ship to meat with ambassadors from other countries and to demonstrate Zaft's technological prowess. This was evident because some of the halls had unfinished wood grain and gold trim that was still left intact. As they got closer to the bridge the walls became just a little larger and carpeted. Carpet was something that no military vessel had.

But in all, the ships were the same and the lay outs were the same. Only real differences being the defenses. The Eternity would just have to rely on her speed if they got into another major fight.

The group entered the bridge to find it nearly vacant. Only a three people where there. One was a girl with golden blond hair that shimmered. She had a very pretty face and striking eyes. The girl however seemed more occupied with running the ship than the people who came aboard. It rather seemed that she was doing the work of ten plus people. The girl did speak up, demanding help.

The crew knew exactly what to do and they took up their previous positions on the bridge. Now for the first time since it had left the plants, the Eternity had a full bridge crew.

It was Kelly, still in Lacus's arms that noticed the other two of the original occupants on the bridge. "Grandma! Grandpa!"

Lacus turned to meat with the stares of both of her husbands parents. Lacus was taken back, but the closest thing to a smile that she could muster was formed as the two ran toward her. Kelly reached out for Caridad, and Lacus let the child enter her grandmother's arms. Lacus was then engulfed in a hug from Haruma, her own father in law.

The bridge was mainly silent as the small family was reunited. After a moment it was inevitable that the parents would ask about there son. Lacus, was unprepared and didn't know what to say. The death of Kira was…hard to swallow. She figured that with all that has just happened, that his death had not really registered in her mind yet. Tears just filled her eyes as she shook her head and buried herself in Haruma's arms. The parenst finally realized what had happened.

As the bridge was silent, the blonde headed girl spoke up before it got too depressing on the bridge. "I'm really sorry to intrude." She walked forward and meat with face to face with Lacus. She than bowed her head. "My name is Cassidy Barton. I present this ship, the Eternity to you."

Lacus whipped the tears from her eyes. Now was not the time to grieve. Just like when her father died, she will have to wait to cry. Now she had to take charge. "Thank you Cassidy. Where is the rest of the crew?"

"I apologies Maim. We used this ship to escape from Romafellar controlled Zaft. The only crew aboard is my husband and I, and Mr. and Mrs. Yamato."

"You stole the ship?"

A boy with long hair jetting our from his face walked forward and stood beside the girl. "My name is Trowa Barton and I am her husband. Yes, we stole this ship. We then picked up Mr. and Mrs. Yamato in hopes of using them to meat with you and your husband."

Lacus was glad that they brought her in laws here. Most people don't get along with their in laws, but Lacus had a very healthy relationship with hers. "I thank you for bringing them to me, but I don't really see the necessity in doing so."

"They were placed as members of the Zaft Liberation Society as per Romafellars orders. If we left them, then Zaft police would have killed them."

* * *

Hours later, the crew managed to settle in and some were granted time to rest. For some of those it was time to mourn.

The ship, while near perfect, was in no shape to enter combat. It had minimal weaponry, so if battle did arise, then the ship would have to rely on the three remaining mobile suits. The suits as they were called where the Heavyarms, the Altron, and the Deathscythe. Technician worked feverishly trying to repair Dearka's battered Zaku. Many trips to the machine shop entailed because no parts for the suits were stored on the ship.

The last suit, the Destiny, was left relatively alone. Shinn's superior pilot capabilities kept the suit from any major damage. So the suit was mechanically sound. It looked fine and if it wasn't for the reactor going out, then it would still be out fighting. Unfortuanatly, the reactor as stated before, was shot and utterly useless. If the suit was to operate again, then the reactor would have to be replaced, and spare reactors were not just something that were easily or cheaply developed.

Lacus walked down the familiar yet different hall toward her room. During her meeting with the Barton family much was discussed. The first was the crew. The Barton couple was more than willing to give the ship to her. Once the turn over was complete everyone went to the stations they previously held with few exceptions.

The Eternal had a second seat behind the captain that Lacus had requested built for herself. The Eternity lacked that seat. So Lacus first sat in the captains chair but immediately left it. She was no captain. She didn't even have military training, and was definitely no tactician. Waltfeld always was, and she was more or less there for moral. Yzak happily took Waltfelds old position.

The talks continued to commence with the topic of the lone terminal message. With the lack of allies and safe hiding places for the ship, it was agreed to go to the coordinates with much caution. It was the only lead, as the ship couldn't challenge Romafellar. For at the moment, challenging Romafellar, meant challenging Zaft.

Once it was concluded Lacus carefully excused herself and made her way to her quarters. She walked in a near daze. The hallways were similar to the Eternals, but were fashioned with highly decorated carpet and brass decorations. The ceiling was pure military grade with grey painted steel and exposed rivets. The builders must have stopped using such high quality decorations after the ship was turned into a cargo vessel mid way thru completion.

She finally entered her room. It was the same room assigned to her aboard the Eternal. In ways it was as if the ship was never destroyed. But it wasn't the same room. The layout was just a bit different. And decorations from it's previous owner still existed. It was the captains quarters and it featured many personal objects. Lacus felt that she was intruding, but other people were waiting for her in the room.

Once in she was face to face with her in-laws. After they met on the bridge earlier, the Yamato's took their grand child to this room as Lacus dealt with affairs dealing with the ship.

Immediately Caridad, her mother in law, ran towards her and engulfed her in a hug. Lacus returned the gesture and the two remained in an embrace for a time. Finally in the room away from the bridge and other crew members, she was finally able to reflect on the events of the past day. Of everyone on the ship, she had to be strong. She was the leader.

Small sparkles fell from her eyes and little sniffles started to become greater cries. She cried as quietly as she could in front of the two. They were the only two people on the ship who would be allowed to witness such an event. She isn't supposed to cry.

After a while she pulled herself away. She was doing a good job she thought of holding it back. Her tears were still small and her cries controllable. She rubbed her eyes with her palms and looked around the room. She needed something, anything to distract her. "Where's Kelly?" She asked.

"In the bed room, sleeping." Haruma, Lacus's father-in-law said.

Lacus nodded her head. She didn't know what to say. Over the years she had come to be close with the two and had developed a healthy relationship with her in-laws. Rarely does she ever enter a situation where she doesn't know what to say. She knew what she wanted too. She wanted to tell them how their son fought bravely to the end. How he protected their ship to the best of his abilities. She wanted to tell them how much she loved him. How good a husband and father he was. What people thought of him, and how he was so well respected by most people. She wanted to tell them all this, but words did not come.

She tried and tried, but as she opened her mouth to speak, words did not come. Caridad again engulfed the girl in a hug. Tears were streaming out of the elderly woman,s face, and Lacus knew what it meant. After all these years they knew. Everything that she wanted to tell them about their son, they already knew. They knew he was a great father, husband, and soldier. They knew everything she wanted to say, and Caridad's actions told Lacus to not say anything, but to just let it all out.

And Lacus did. Right there, she didn't fight to hold her tears back. She didn't keep her voice down so her cires would be unheard. She screamed and yelled at the pain in her heart. She cried as she had never had before.

* * *

As far as maintenance went, the three gundam's didn't need any. Heavyarm's was still fully loaded, and the Nataku came out of the fight without a scratch. As technicians ran around the ship, trying to get everything in order, Trowa and Wufei stood on a catwalk in front of their gundam's sharing a drink.

The two were more talkative to each other than they were years ago. The two were actually able to share an intelligent conversation between each other rather than just being together in silence. Of course there conversations were always a little odd.

As Trowa sipped hot coffee from his mug, he was the first to speak. "The Nataku's looking well."

"Mmm." Wufei grunted to acknowledge.

"I take that as a yes."

"The reactor is heavy and thrust out put is lower than it was with the Verniya."

"But the increased operation life is worth it is it not? You wouldn't have had the fuel to survive so long in space if you were still using the Verniya." Trowa was referencing the time spent in space as Wufei guarded the escape pods of the Eternal for over fifteen hours.

Again Wufei grunted. "Perhaps your right."

Trowa smiled. "You're just mad because you know you could have destroyed more dolls."

"It is up to the pilot to compensate. It's never the suits fault." Wufei looked back at his suit. Trowa's eyes followed and for a moment the two studied their suits.

Just like the other three Gundam's, the only remaining original parts were the gundanium armor and the basic frame. The suit's were rebuilt from the ground up using new parts, and were then upgraded with technology from this world. While mobile suit technology and weaponry from this world was a full generation behind, their reactor technology was significantly better. Once discovered, the boys quickly outfitted their gundams with the best they could get their hands on.

As Trowa looked away he realized that one was missing. He had made enough for three people but only two where there. "Where's Duo?"

Wufei snorted. "He has become infatuated with a woman. He's probably with her."

"Is that so…"

"It's disgusting." Wufei added, if only to get on Trowa's nerves.

"In case you have forgotten, I am married. So what is disgusting about women?"

"Women aren't disgusting. His woman is."

"What is wrong with her?" Trowa was curious. He had just briefly seen Duo with a red haired girl. She was holding on to him and crying.

"She is weak."

"So a woman must be able to kick your butt in order for you to like her?"

Wufei gave Trowa a death glare. "No, but I don't like women who run and hide. She must be able to fight and stand beside her man. If she can't, then she is a waste."

Trowa sighed and took another sip. Well, it's definitely an improvement from before. Wufei used to despise all women regardless. "But she is in the military. Does a girl have to fight in mobile suits?"

Wufei didn't answer. He just took a sip of his coffee. His lack of words told Trowa to end this conversation.

Trowa again sighed. Cassidy had made it a point to make him more social. If she were here than she would be constantly nudging him in the back to keep the conversations going. As she would say, his anti-social behavior is damaging to their image. She always put it in ways he could best understand.

Just as he was about to speack, Wufei beat him to the next question. "What about you?"

Trowa took a moment to think about his answer. "After the gundams were completed Duo and I moved from colony to colony until we settled in a small Orb colony. There I was close enough to the Plants to use relay satellites to hack into their computer, while still far enough away to be untraceable. I stayed there while Duo went to White Base. He was supposed to infiltrate the military there, but I don't know why he didn't."

"How long has it been?"

"Well, Duo left about two years ago, and the gundam's were completed four years ago…that means we have been here for five years now."

"We're never getting home."

"We may still have the chance…someday."

Wufei finished his coffee and crumbled the disposable cup up. "You said you were married. Sounds like you gave up on going home."

"She was the right girl. If I do go home, she'll probably go with me."

"Does she know where we come from?"

Trowa took a gulp of coffee this time. He felt the black liquid burn as it flowed down his throat. He too was now finished with his cup. "Yes."

Wufei looked most disapproving. "You told her…"

"I married her. Of course I told her."

"Was it before or after you married her?"

"Before. Kind of."

"Explain." Again Wufei demanded.

"She is an officer of Zaft. In fact she was stationed on this ship. It's a real long story, but she was investigating Romafellar on her own. I met her and we would share information. We became contacts, then it eventually turned into a relationship, and now we are married."

"Is she still a member of Zaft?"

"No. Not after we stole this ship." The two remained silent again. The coffee was gone, but neither intended to leave.

"What about you? Quatra went to Earth. So did Heero. Where did you go?"

Wufei mumbled something that was incoherent before speaking. "I went to Orb with Noin and Zech's at first. It was a bit to boring for me, so I then traveled around the world till I ended up in Scandinavia. I worked with Heero and Howard. I went to the Plants to try a more direct approach at spying on Romafellar, and now I am here."

"So you have seen Heero?"

"He's doing well." Wufei answered without Trowa even asking. "He's too dependent on that woman of his. He's gone soft, but we still work together."

"Work together?"

"Don't ask." Wufei said bluntly. Duo asked the same thing, and Wufei answered the same way.

Trowa looked at his watch. Cassidy was back at their room sleeping. She was very tired from running the ship almost by herself for two whole days. Trowa's stamina was a little better, but he too was getting tired, and he figured it was time to go join her.

* * *

Murrue positioned herself comfortably in her chair as she buckled the safety harness. They had spent no more than half a day at the hidden base of the Marqunac Corp.'s base. Just enough time for the boosters to be installed on the side of the ship. The boosters resembled primitive rockets that could brake through the earths atmosphere. She doubted that mechanically they were different. They looked odd and out of place on the side of her ship, but they were designed to disintegrate as the ship left the atmosphere.

And thus she leaned back as the ship neared its maximum altitude and waited to order for the boosters to engage. She agreed wholeheartedly that Quatra was right. Whatever was going on was in space. There was no choice. The Archangel, still beat up, needed to get to space.

Finally with the wave of a hand, she ordered the boosters to engage and she felt the tremendous thrust push the ship forwards. Day turned into night as the Archangel left earth for the mysterious coordinates in outer space.

* * *

A bright light awoke him from his slumber. Looming out the window to his side, Kira witnessed the unmistakable warmth that could only be generated from the sun. It was a mixture of the sun and earth's atmosphere that was calming and impossible to simulate perfectly on the plants.

He moved himself into a sitting position. He seemed to be all there. All limbs intact. He had a headache, but that was to be expected. He had no idea where he was or how long he had been out.

He wasn't chained up. He sat in a bed within a well decorated room. The room was sparse and small. He had two windows, one to his left and the other against the opposite wall. He also had a small television that was off and displayed nothing. There was also a door directly across from him that was left wide open.

As Kira was taking in his surroundings, he felt the bed jump slightly. Rather something was moving under it. Crawling on the ground.

Kira looked down to see the cause of the commotion, but came face to face with a gun. Feeling rather weak and disabled, Kira shut his eyes and prepared for the inevitable.

"Pwek, pwek!" He heard. It wasn't a gun shot.

Kira opened his eyes and got a better look. The gun was held by a small boy who was no older than his own daughter. The gun upon closer inspection was nothing but a plastic toy ray gun.

As this was registering in his mind, a woman burst into the room. "Calvin!" she yelled.

The boy's eyes went wide, and he coward in fear to the woman.

The woman however continued. "I told you to stay out of here! You're not allowed to play in here while we have guests!"

The boy who was also holding a stuffed tiger in his other hand fought back with the woman. "But Mom. We weren't bothering him."

"I'm not going to hear it. Go outside and play."

The boy let out a small pout, but followed his mothers orders. Once the boy was gone, the woman sighed and turned her attention to Kira. "Sorry about that. He's been a handful all day."

"I know what you mean. I have one his age too." Kira smiled. "How long have I been out?"

"About two days now. Going through Earth's atmosphere in that damaged suit really took it out of you."

"I see." Her talking about the freedom told Kira so many things. But it left open so many questions as well.

"You have no need to worry Mr. Yamato." The woman said as if she was reading Kira's mind. "You're safe here. You're among friends."

"I'm sorry. I don't understand where here is actually."

A crash and the sound of something shattering outside came through the windows. The woman sighed and made her way to the door. "I got to go check on what he broke this time. My husband will be here shortly and he'll explain everything to you. Suffice to say, you being here is not a coincidence."

Kira rubbed his head. He was still a little drowsy and the headache was making it dificult to really understand everything. "Uhm...who are you?"

The woman turned and smiled at him. "My name is Relena."

**Yeah, it's been a long time. Life got in the way. Finished school and started a new job. My new job is already sending me on additional training. While in a different town all by myself and playing Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, I thought back and decided to start this back up again. I have the next few chapters roughly written, so updates will be coming. There's probably more grammar mistake than previously because this chapter wasn't proof read as much. **

**I know Quatra and Sandrock was pretty predictable, but I wanted Sandrock to have a grand entrance just like the other gundams. **

**I've had a couple of people ask me to have Heero and Relena have a son. I planned for Relena and Heero to have a son early on in planning for the story cause I was planning a sequel involving him and Kira and Lacus's daughter. He's close to three years younger than Kelly, but thats not really important. But this story has gotten much bigger and I doubt that a sequel will ever happen. I tend to base my minor characters on other people or characters. Anyone guess who Relena's son is based on?**

**I know this chapter is slow. Really just explaining a little bit of plot and transitioning for the next steps in the story. The next few chapters will not feature the Archangel or Eternity and crews. **

**Please tell me what you guys think. Reviews please. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Ch. 11**

"So you are finally awake." The voice reverberated through his ears.

Squeezing his eyes and grunting Athrun became conscious. Once he opened his eyes, he found a number of people surrounding him. He lay on a medical bed, chained up and immobile. The group of people around him were a mixed bunch. A miss-mash of differing plant cultures and races. Some dressed in military garb, while others seemed to be dressed in civilian clothing. One man was dressed in orange overalls that were covered in soot indicating he was an engineer.

But one man in particular stood out in front of the others, and gave the biggest impression. The man was dressed in a Zaft captains uniform. Or rather a 5th rank captain, the highest one could achieve before becoming Admiral. He had white facial hair, which was rare, but not uncommon within early generation coordinators. He was an older man, but a large well built man. His uniform was perfectly creased and clean, to a level of perfection that only the man himself could appreciate. Not another man within the group looked as professional or confident as this man.

"Who are you?" Athrun asked.

"So he speaks! It's about time!" A man in the crowd yelled. Some of them laughed at this remark, but not a single person reprimanded the man. The older man in front even smiled at it. It became clear to Athrun, that even despite the man in charge's uniform, this was not a military run ship.

"It has been along time Athrun Zala." The man in front said. "It is an unexpected pleasure to have you aboard.

Athrun gave the man a long hard look at the mention of his name. "I know you...you're Marco Borodin."

Borodin seemed to hold back a laugh. "It is quiet remarkable that you survived. We were positive that you died in the battle, but it seems the Justice had an experimental safety system that kept the reactor from erupting."

"What? The Justice?"

"Yes. I have never seen a system like it before, but it saved your life. Looked pricey though, probably why we've never seen it in any of the production suits."

Memories of the attack on the Eternal came all at once. He remembered everything up till the final blast that took out the Justice.

"When we picked up the Justice, I was hoping that it would be salvageable. Unfortunately, it was a total loss. Well total except for the pilot."

"The Eternal. What happened to it?"

"It was unfortunately destroyed. We arrived to late."

"What about survivors? Where there any?" Athrun was beginning to panic.

"There were survivors, though we did not pick them up."

At Borodin's last statement Athrun got very angry. "Did someone pick them up?"

The crew seemed to be losing interest. Some left to return to work, while a few remained. Borodin's demeanor became more serious. "Athrun. You being here was unexpected. If I had know you where alive, then I would have left you too behind."

Anger began to fill Athrun. "What?" he asked seething.

"This ships destination and destiny have no place for anyone outside of her crew. We cannot been seen associating with anyone." When Borodin said this, Athrun could sense doubt and uncertainty from the rest of the remaining crew in the room. It was unsettling.

"So you just left them?"

Athrun's anger was understandable, and the crew knew this. "The survivors were not abandoned. We have vast resources. We monitored them till a ship did retrieve them. To our knowledge they are safe."

"What ship?"

"It was a Zaft vessel."

"A Zaft vessel! Why not just hand them to Romafellar on a silver platter." Athrun yelled.

Athrun eyed Borodin as the room was filled with an awkward silence. Borodin whispered something into a crew members ear. The crew member left and returned a moment later with a computer tablet. Borodin took the tablet, looked it over and tossed it into Athrun's lap.

"It was not a Romafellar ship. I know that much." He then motioned his crew to leave the room, and they did as told. Borodin moved forward and removed the handcuffs on Athruns arms. "This tablet has all the information we know about the destruction of the Eternal and the survivors. Later, I wish to have a better talk once you have calmed down."

With this Borodin left. Athrun made no movement for what seemed like hours. He eventually picked up the tablet and began reading. He started with the destruction of the Eternal and then to the current affairs on earth.

* * *

Himler threw the contents of his desk on the floor. Papers and electronic devices scattered over the floor and bumped into the other occupants of the room. "How could this have happened?" He asked seething.

The Romafellar captain kept his composure, aside from the sweat rolling down his forehead. "We do not know Sir. All we know is that we have lost the Monitor's IS." IS stood for Identification Signal. It was a simple signal that didn't transfer any information of any sort. All it sent was a simple ping signal so Romafellar could confirm that the vessels were still in operation.

"The IS! You brought me that information to tell me we have lost the Monitors IS? Has it even occurred to you that it malfunctioned?"

"Sir, standard procedure is that when an IS signal is lost, that we perform an emergency confirmation relay signal to determine if the vessel was destroyed. We have not received a confirmation signal in three days." Once an IS signal was lost, Romafellar would risk contacting the downed ship through a confirmation signal. To avoid being found the signal would not use a high intense signal. This did leave what was know as lag time. Depending on the Monitors position it could take anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours.

"Whats the lag time?"

"It's last reported position of the Monitor was 6 days ago. Based on the farthest distance the ship could possibly cover in that amount of time, we estimate that no more than 12 hour for the ship to respond."

Himler grinded his teeth. It was near impossible for a Gunship to be lost. Even a Zaft mobile artillery base was not as heavily armored. "Has there been any other attempts to verify that the ship was destroyed?"

"Non Sir, other than a few more attempts to directly contact the ship. We need your approval to investigate."

Himler while still very angry calmed himself down. It was an act of course. He looked calm, but buried deep he was furious. "We can't afford to send a Zaft ship to investigate. Even if it's a Romafellar. Even if the ship has a Romafellar commander, we can't risk anyone not associated with Romafellar to see the... wreckage." Himler found it rather hard to say those last words. He sighed an continued. "What's the closest Gunship we have to it?"

The captain was already prepared for that question. "The Cairo. We sent a position signal request yesterday. The Cairo is operating rather close to the Monitor."

"Of course it is." Himler knew that already. The Monitor's job was to destroy small research bases. The bases it was after were small bases, which housed only a few hundred people or more. Small bases that had no colony or plant, but rather was just a small space station. These station operated in space that was remote from major bases. This allowed them to perform tests and experiments without the restraints of tending to permanent community. "Have the Cairo investigate. Send an emergency transmission."

"Sir." The captain saluted and left the room.

Himler was furious. He screamed curses ounce left alone in his office. It was always possible that a gunship could be destroyed. It was only a machine after all. But this early in the plan! The nations still have yet to discover the ships. Extreme measures where taken to reduce the possibility. Additions to the designs such as the ability for the ship to make its own mobile dolls, and more and more weapons added during development were done to ensure that the ships could not be destroyed. Not to mention the huge cost each one was to make.

He sighed to try to calm himself down. Because of the nature of the ships Himler had no idea what the Monitor was doing in that area of space. The captains all knew the plan and all had a single primary objective, but they all launched with smaller individual objectives. Himler would only contact the ships in emergency to see what they were doing. After all any time he ricked contacting the ships, he risked them being discovered and risked being connected to them.

Pressing a button on his desk he called his secretary. "Send me my daughter. And tell her to bring the advanced mobile suit division Zeta Team."

"Yes Sir." She responded.

Officially known as the Zeta team, but better known as the Red Comets. They are one of the most elite mobile suit pilots in Zaft, having access to the most advanced mobile suits Zaft and Romafellar have to offer. They are a younger team composed of coordinators. However, each one comes from a Romafellar family.

* * *

Kira got up and walked around for a bit, but otherwise stayed in bed for most of the day. He still felt weak. As Relena had later told him, reentry in the damaged Freedom was very taxing on him body. Not as bad as his first reentry in the original Strike, but still very difficult. He had a slight fever, but his body was quickly recovering.

For the majority of the day Kira was kept in the dark of what was happening in space and on earth. The only people he was in contact with where this Relena and her son Calvin. And while Kira liked them, Relena just refused nearly all details of what had happened. All she ever said was that her husband would tell him. And he had been waiting on her husband for over a day now.

To say he was worried however was an understatement. He was mortified by not knowing if his family was alright. He didn't know the fate of the Eternal, or the location of his wife and daughter.

To combat this, Kira would look for things to do to pass the time. He would help Relena out with household choirs if she was willing, but she mainly made him stay in bed. Eventually she gave him the controls to the television.

Turning it to news station Kira watched as a little bit of the big picture was revealed to him. On the screen was a man in his later years wearing a gray business suit. Kira entered the broadcast in the middle as the man was already covering the story of the battles.

"Among the many places attacked since the massacre at Orb, the Atlantic and Eurasian Federations have settled on a new treaty that would allow joint military actions together. As we all know, the relationship between these two governments has been declining with the last few years, but it seems almost a necessity to join forces again. These two countries have been the hardest hit, not accounting for the country of Orb. In all, both countries combined have lost nearly twenty thougsand lives in the fighting, and not all were military. As the two leaders of the countries talk, they have invited the leaders of other countries to join them, most notably are the leaders of the Republic of East Asia, the South African Union, and even the Chairman of Zaft. This harkens back to the days of the Earth Alliance and people are starting to wonder if another great alliance will be formed."

Kira's stomach turned at that. Wufei couldn't be right? Wufei said that Romafellar was trying to united the world under Zaft control, and this false Zaft Liberation society was just a mask to hide the fact that they are the ones orchestrating the attacks.

Kira remained silent and continued watching. "Among the area's that have been attacked are Hawaii and Cuba. Both small nations were obliterated in the same manner as Orb. Other places on earth include Carpentaria, Zenith, the Asus command center in south Afganistan, and the Houston trans-space port to name a few. It should be noted that all the places that have been attack have a mass driver, and that the Houston Tran-Space Port is the largest and busiest commercial and military mass driver launch facility on the earth. As we turn our eyes to space, the Zaft Liberation Society is the group that has claimed credit for the attacks. They appear to be held up in the former Orb space colony White Base. After reviewing all the attacks it is clear that as many as seventy percent of the attacks so far have come from the forces held up in White Base. Attacks have been occurring whenever the colony's orbit passes over their target. It also would explain the reasoning behind the targeting of Mass Drivers. Of the thirty-seven mass drivers that were in existence just a little over a week ago, only two remain, both of which are in Antartica. Without any mass drivers, the countries of Earth will have a hard and costly time getting their military presence in space and launching a counter attack."

Kira then noticed a man walk in into the room. He was a tall man with dark brown hair. The man was wearing a shirt and tie with a pair of black pants. He looked tired, as if he just got home from a long day of work. He had cold eyes and a deathly stare. After just a moment of thought, Kira knew who this was. He was the third member of this household. Here was Heero Yuy.

The man spoke up. "You're Kira Yamato. Pilot of the Freedom. Husband to former chairwoman Lacus Yamato, and former head Admiral in the Front Zaft Attack force."

Kira nodded his head. "And you're Heero Yuy."

Heero didn't waste time with needless questions or small talk. "Why do you fight?"

Now Kira was wondering why he was here. Was this man trying to recruit him? Kira was here because this man had a reason. Kira went along with the mans games. "I fight to protect those I love."

"Don't give me that BS answer. It's the same crap that everyone else says. Why do you really fight?"

"I told you."

"No you didn't." The man stare intensified and Kira began to feel intimidated. After a moment where Kira said nothing, the man spoke again. "Why do you fight to protect those you love?"

Kira thought back all the way back to Heliopolis. He though of his times fighting in the Strike on the Archangel. Of when he obtained the Freedom and of the second bloody valentine war. He thoughts brought him all the way back up to the destruction of the Eternal. He answered. "Because no one else can."

"Bull-t." The man nearly yelled. Kira's eyes went wide, and if Heero seemed rude and angry before, then he just went up ten fold. He seemed to be flaming furious. "That type of self righteous attitude pisses me off. You don't fight to protect. If you think your the only one that can protect people you are very mistaken. People aren't helpless, they can take care of themselves. There is no reason to fight to protect them."

Now Kira was getting angry and he himself fought back. "Fighting to protect is the only reason to fight!"

"You think it is honorable? If everyone fought to protect, then they would never fight. I bet that you're one who believes everything can be solved through negotiations. In fact I know your wife believes so, but the media fails to mention that tension actually began to re-arise between Zaft and Earth during her rule.

It was true. Since the end of the second bloody valentine war, Zaft no longer had any land based colonies or bases on earth. Spoils of war from Durandels reign. This forced Zaft to begin purchasing all raw materials from earth countries. While many were friendly with Zaft, the declining economic situation on earth took its tole on Zaft as well, and Zaft's economy began to decline as well. This aided, with the quick appearance of the Romafellar party, actually forced the tension between Earth and the Plants to rise again. While neither side was willing to go to war again, trade embargo's were becoming common between the two as was price gouging.

Kira didn't answer Heero.

"Why does one who believes so much in pacifist ideals fight?"

"I told you I fight only to protect."

"And I told you, you don't."

Kira's anger was beginning to boil. "Then why do I fight?" He asked seething.

"Nearly every battle and major war on earth happens for a reason. They never fight to protect."

"Then why do they fight."

"They fight for what is right. In the seem of things, you can't protect anything. In battle it's the best you can do to protect yourself. The reason ones fights is to fight for what is right. Whether it is ideals, or responding from the other sides previous actions, you fight for what is right. Because if the one in the wrong win's, then all is lost."

Kira thought over what Heero said. "I do fight for what is right."

"I know you more than you think. I know that you had no idea who to fight in the last war. It took you till the end to determine what was right. They call you a hero. But all I see is a man." Heero moved from the wall and began pacing around the room. "But the world is not that simple. One doesn't fight for what is wrong. During both of the last wars, men on both sides faught for what they thought was right. Weither it be genetic modification, religious reason's, or simply revenge against what was done to them before. Romafellar is a high class organization. They are a cult that believes that they are the rightful rulers of the earth. They believe with all their heart that it is there destiny to rule the planet, and anyone who apposes them is blaspheming."

Kira was beginning to calm down. He was seeing what Heero was saying. Nearly all wars are fought over dissagreements over what is right. But he just couldn't... Kira shook his head. "No. You're wrong. Rationally thinking, it isn't hard to tell right from wrong."

"Rational is a generic and false term Yamato. Rationally thinking is different for everyman. You're right and wrong are different from your enemies right and wrong." Heero moved closer to Kira's bedside and nearly got in his face. "A man fights to fight. A hero fight for what he believes in, and a legend fight for what he knows is right. Wither he likes it or not. I'm going to ask you again, why do you fight. Because right now, all I see is a man, with the shadow of a legend."

Kira did not respond.

* * *

Heero entered the kitchen and joined Relena in cleaning dishes from the night before.

"Was all that really necessary?" Relena asked.

"He doesn't know. If he is the one I choose, I have to be sure that his heart is in the right place."

"You speaking of the heart scares me Heero. You've never done before." Relena said jokingly.

Heeo let out a sigh and corrected himself. "Well, his 'thoughts' than."

Relena let out a little chuckle and as soon as she finished and before Heero could respond they both heard a crash come from the living area. It was followed immediately by the front door swing open and little footsteps running away from the scene of the crime. Both parents sighed at this.

"He's just like you." Relena let out. "Except your targets were military bases. His are furniture."

"What else has he done today?" Heero asked. Relena stayed silent and Heero continued. "He doesn't happen to have anything to do with those sirens I heard around noon?"

Relena gave Heero a worrying smile.

Heero stormed out the door. "This better not be worse than the noodle incident!" He yelled back.

* * *

Borodin refused to tell Athrun anything directly. The man seemed to enjoy playing games with Athrun. Athrun has fished out from the man that this was definitely not a Romafellar or Zaft ship. The ship was functioning independently, and was in fact fighting against Romafellar. Why Borodin was fighting this way, Athrun had yet to figure out.

Athrun was not a prisoner. Borodin had made a point for him to know that. Once Athrun was originally freed, he did try to make a foolish attempt to escape. He was easily subdued by Ivan, Borodin's right hand man. This man Ivan, was incredibly well versed in fighting, and Athrun never stood a chance.

Not long afterward Athrun calmed down, and was given permission to accompany Borodin to dinner. After being given a change of clothes, which happened to be a black Admirals uniform stripped of all the rank insignia's, he headed to the cafeteria under guard.

He had learned a few other things. Not much has been said about Orb since the initial attack. Either this ship had little interest in the attack on Orb, or more likely, bigger things were happening on Earth. In order to calm him down, Ivan did give him a tablet reading that showed the ship that picked up the Eternal's survivors was a stolen Zaft ship. As he read how the ship was stolen, he began to feel a lot better about the safety of the survivors.

Once in the mess hall, he noticed it wasn't just he and Borodin, but all the high ranking officers as well. As he sat down he was given a freshly made plate of fine cuisine. One of the few pleasures a captain and his senior staff was allowed on a ship of war was great particularly prepared meals. Athrun, sure it wasn't poisoned, ate into it. He then determined it looked as good as it tasted.

The crew did not talk as they ate. They barely even payed Athrun any attention. He was just a man in the corner. Athrun didn't even sit next to the captain, but far away at the end of the table. Once everyone was done with the main meal, the chef told them it would be a moment for the desert. This was when the conversation started.

A man dressed in a high lieutenant's garb talked first. Athrun learned earlier that this man's name was Greg and he was the CIC officer. "Captain. Can you talk straight. There is a rumor going around that the facilities along with the people that built this ship were destroyed and killed."

Borodin who was last to finish eating wiped his face with his napkin and threw it on the plate. "Yes. The engineers of these ships were credited as members of the Zaft Liberation Society and where all killed."

Athrun didn't know that. What was going on? He thought.

"They killed everyone, and set the base on fire, but it still holds significance."

"Significance Sir?"

"That base is the only physical connection Romafellar has with Zaft. The problem is that it's in the middle of nowhere in space. And space is big. You would have to know the exact coordinates of the base to even see it. There is no record of the base in Zaft registry, but if discovered then it would blow this Liberation Society nonsense out of the water."

Athrun did not comment. He wanted to, but the crews reaction halted him. The crew fully understood Borodin, yet none of them questioned why he wouldn't tell the nations of Earth about this base. Here is Borodin with proof of the enemy and yet he kept it to himself. And the crew was in agreement with him. What was this man up too?

"I'm more startled with what the destruction of that base means to us." Another crew member spoke up. "Doesn't this mean that the Gunship series is complete. All six of them. We are severely undermanned. It wont be long till they all find out what we are doing."

Borodin spoke to the man. "As you know, all the gunships function separately, and communication between gunships is nearly prohibited. It will be a while before they find out if ever. If anything, it will be Romafellar who notices when we don't do any work for them. But I must correct you. There are not six gunships, but seven."

Athrun witnessed the crew commit full attention to Borodin. This obviously was something that they had not known. Borodin continued. "Cairo was the third one built. We were already in trial runs when Himler commissioned the seventh, which is why you don't know about it."

"You've seen the ship yourself?"

"No, but I know it exists. It's three hundred meters longer than us. More advanced and more powerful. It's Chairman Himler's personal gunship, and if we fear anything, than it will be the seventh ship. None the less, I fear her role may be different than the original intended role of the Cairo. Just a hunch."

The crew began to look upset, but not undetermined. "I'm sorry Sir, but you expect us to go to battle with it? This ship was designed for a crew of a couple of a thousand, but we only have 113 persons to operate the ship. Let alone repair anything."

"Not all is to fear. The seventh ship, her name is the Stonewall. And I know here captain quit well. His name is Jackson, a little young and a realist. But he has idealistic wishes. If he hasn't been corrupted, then we may possibly have an ally."

"You say possibly Sir."

"Yes, but doubtful." Borodin ended. Desert then came and the conversation was over.

As the crew went back into silence, Athrun finally spoke up. "Why did you leave the Eternal's survivors behind?"

The whole crew turned to Athrun and Borodin smiled. "Tell me what's on your mind Zala."

Athrun cleared his thought. The captain seemed generally interested, but the crew looked like the jury at a trial. "You didn't pick up any survivors, and acted threatening toward them. I'm no prisoner here. I see no reason that you couldn't have done a humane thing and saved those people. They could be dead, and you could have saved them."

Athrun could tell that the crew wanted to lash out at him. But they held back, for the captain was the one addressed.

"You think I willingly left them to die. You view me as some kind of bad guy."

"Even if you wouldn't save them for humanitarian reasons, then you could have still saved them and have a few extra hands to run the ship."

"You don't understand Athrun. If I had picked them up, then they would be dead. You see, this ship cannot afford to have any alias. No one can be seen associated with this ship."

"Why?"

"This ship has to be vilified. We have to bee seen as villains, or enemies, in order for the people to view Romafellar that way." Borodin took a sip from a cup of coffee. "Romafellar is smart. They have covered their tracks. There are no connections to these ships that Romafellar hasn't placed the blame on this false Zaft Liberation Society. So in order for the people to see who Romafellar really is, then I have to in a sense, frame myself in order to frame them."

"That doesn't make sense. No one would have seen them taken aboard. You still haven't answered my question."

"Zala, my dear boy. You friends have to be among those that think we are the villains."

"I don't get what you are saying. Why are you doing this? To end war or stop the deaths of many life's?"

"Don't get the wrong idea Athrun. I have no ambitions for world peace nor do I see that as a possibility. I don't hate Romafellar, but they have changed for the worse."

"Romafellar has changed? I wasn't aware they existed before a couple of years ago."

Borodin sighed and contemplated whether to tell Athrun this next bit. "Where I grew up, Romafellar was a society of nobles, all who had fought hard and deserved the power they gained. They were a respectable people, who valued honor and respect. But now, that ancient Romafellar has been cut off, and the new Romafellar is nothing more than a cult. A cult who believes they are the rightful power holders in the world. That they are destined to rule the earth just because they were born. It's nothing but power hungry young people out for control." Borodin took a moment to ketch his breathe. "You want to know my honest opinion about Romafellar? I don't hate them, and they can believe what ever they what to believe. They however are just in my way, and I am going to force them out of it." There was passion in Borodin's eyes during that last statement. A flare of anger and hate. He was holding back to not loss control of his emotions.

Athrun eyed Borodin. "What are you planning?"

Borodin took another sip of coffee and smiled. "Perhaps one day you'll find out. In the mean time, enjoy your desert."

**Things pick up next chapter. Not much here, but had to have an in between chapter. **


End file.
